By Miriam Raftery

September 23, 2018 (Washington D.C.) – U.S. Senate has passed an appropriations bill that removed the controversial Aderholt amendment inserted by Republicans on the House Appropriations Committee. The Aderholt amendment would have allowed federally funded child welfare service providers to withhold services for moral or religious reasons, with a stated goal of allowing agencies to ban adoptions of children by same-sex couples. But human rights groups say the measure would also open the door to discriminate based on an adoptive parent’s religion, race, marital status and more.