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(NewsNation) — The U.S. Catholic bishops are suing the Trump administration over the government’s suspension of refugee resettlement,saying the action will have “devastating” impacts on people fleeing hardship and persecution in their home countries. 

The bishops conference said the Catholic Church has partnered with the government and local Catholic groups for decades to help nearly a million individuals find safety in the United States.  

“We are urging the government to uphold its legal and moral obligations to refugees,” said Chieko Noguchi, executive director of public affairs of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

The bishops say that withholding millions in resettlement costs violates various laws as well as the constitutional provision giving the power of the purse to Congress, which already approved the funding.

According to the bishops, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Migration and Refugee Services is one of ten non-governmental organizations in the U.S. that resettles refugees, defined by the U.S. government as someone who is forced to leave their country due to persecution of violence due to race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership in a particular social group. 

Immigration is not the only issue

Immigration is not the only issue the Catholic bishops are clashing with the Trump administration over. They are also condemning President Trump’s push to make in vitro fertilization cheaper and more accessible to the public. 

“As pastors, we see the suffering of so many couples experiencing infertility and know their deep desire to have children is both good and admirable; yet the Administration’s push for IVF, which ends countless human lives and treats persons like property, cannot be the answer,” said Bishop Daniel E. Thomas, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities.

Catholic Church considers IVF immoral

The Catholic Church considers IVF immoral because it removes conception from the sexual act, destroys embryonic life and treats a child as an object, according to Catholic teaching.

“The IVF industry treats human beings like products and freezes or kills millions of children who are not selected for transfer to a womb or do not survive,” the bishops said. They called the executive order on IVF “fatally flawed,” while praising the administration’s decision to end taxpayer-funded abortion.