White House Details Why Obama Won't Call ISIS' Slaughtering of Christians .

White House spokesman Josh Earnest faces reporters during a media briefing at the White House in Washington October 30, 2015. Earnest announced administration plans for the U.S. to deploy a small number of special operations forces in an advisory role to Syria.White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest admitted Thursday that the Obama administration's hesitation to label the Islamic State's persecution of Christians and other religious minorities as "genocide" is because of the legal ramifications behind such a designation.

As hundreds of thousands of Christians, Yazidis and other religious minorities have been forced out of their homes in Iraq and Syria or have been slaughtered for their faith during IS' rise to power, human rights and religious freedom advocates have been calling on the Obama administration for several months to label the situation as a "genocide" — arguing that the terminology has an impact in the manner on how urgently the global community responds to end the crisis.IS has become notorious for its brutal executions, kidnappings and selling of religious minority girls to jihadis through sex slave markets. According to a recent report by the United Nations, over 18,800 people have been killed in Iraq since 2014, while over 3,500 women and children remain captured as slaves.The Blaze reports that Earnest was asked on Thursday by a reporter why the administration won't call IS' repeated crimes against humanity and violations of international law as genocide.

Earnest responded by saying that the hesitation to use the genocide designation all comes down to "legal ramifications." However, Earnest assured that "administration lawyers" were looking into the possibility of a genocide designation."There are lawyers considering whether or not that term can be properly applied in this scenario," Earnest said. "What is clear and what is undeniable and what the president has now said twice in the last 24 hours is that we know that there are religious minorities in Iraq and in Syria, including Christians, that are being targeted by ISIL terrorists because of their religion and that attack on religious minorities is an attack on all people of faith and it is important for all of us to stand up and speak out about it."