SENATE BLOCKS HOUSE RESTRICTIONS ON ADOPTIONS

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.

The Senate version of the bill now goes back to the House for reconciliation of differences, after which it would go to President Donald Trump for signature.

Aderholt, on his website, stated that “several states and localities across the country are not allowing religious organizations, such as Catholic Charities and Bethany Christian Services, to operate child welfare agencies. The reason for this is simply because these organizations, based on religious conviction, choose not to place children with same-sex couples. “The amendment I introduced seeks to prevent these governments from discriminating against child welfare providers on the basis that the provider declines to provide a service that conflicts with its sincerely held religious beliefs or moral convictions, and furthermore, it would require the Department of Health and Human Services to withhold 15% of federal funds for child welfare services from states and localities that discriminate against these agencies.”

But the Human Rights Campaign opposed the Aderholt amendment, calling it a “license to discriminate” against a broad number of people seeking to adopt, potentially including interfaith couples, single parent, same-sex couples and more.

The ACLU and over 200 other organizations have signed a letter opposing the Aderholt amendment, which the ACLU believes is unconstitutional. The ACLU states, “In violation of state and federal nondiscrimination policies, the Aderholt Amendment would allow child welfare providers receiving taxpayer dollars to decide which families and children to serve. The amendment would affect a wide variety of child welfare services, including family preservation services; foster care, counseling and other services for children; and adoption services. Taxpayer dollars should not be used to discriminate and no family should be told they are not qualified to serve as foster or adoptive parents because they are LGBTQ or the “wrong” religion by a taxpayer-funded provider.”