The Biden administration is proposing a rule that prohibits Christian families who don't support the LGBT ideology from adopting children in the foster care system.
The Administration for Children and Families (ACF), a division within the Department of Health and Human Services, was behind the proposal. It reportedly altered a requirement that federally funded foster care agencies must provide "safe and proper care" for children. Under this revised rule, adoptive families should meet three specific criteria to ensure that LGBT-identifying children are in a "safe and nurturing" home.
Before agencies place a child with a foster parent or "provider," they must establish an environment free of hostility, mistreatment or abuse based on the child's LGBT status; receive training to be prepared with the appropriate knowledge and skills to provide for the needs of the child related to the child's self-identified sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression; and must be able to facilitate the child's access to age-appropriate resources, services and activities that support their health and well-being.
Jonathan Scruggs, vice president of litigation strategy at the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), pointed out that discrimination against Christians is already prevalent. He added that ADF attorneys also submitted a formal comment to the ACF, recommending it withdraw the proposed rule.
"[The new rule] will deter families from fostering children and will make it harder to place children with capable, loving parents," said Scruggs, who is also the vice president of ADF's Center for Conscience Initiatives.
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"Vulnerable children in America's foster care system are urgently in need of loving families to care for them. Yet the Biden administration is threatening to put politics over parents, and gender ideology above children's best interests."
19 AGs blast the new rule for foster parents
This "twisted" and "insane" proposal did not sit well with 19 Republican attorneys general (AGs). Alabama AG Steve Marshall and 18 of his GOP colleagues wrote to HHS, alerting the department that the aforementioned rule violates the Constitution and discriminates against people who practice the Christian faith. They also argued that the said rule would harm children by limiting the number of available foster homes, harm families by risking kinship placements, and harm states by increasing costs and decreasing care options.
"These injuries will be suffered while HHS fails to solve a problem that the proposed rule does not even prove exists in foster care," they wrote. The rule seeks to accomplish indirectly what the Supreme Court found unconstitutional two years ago: Remove faith-based providers from the foster care system if they will not conform their religious beliefs on sexual orientation and gender identity, the letter also included. (Related: Oregon orders Christian parents to allow their adopted underage children to be trans-mutilated on demand.)
Meanwhile, Tennessee AG Jonathan Skrmetti threatened to sue the Biden administration if it pushes through with the rule. "We are not shy about suing to stop federal overreach," he remarked.
Skrmetti flagged some problems with the rule. First, any failure to affirm gender identity will be treated with the same alacrity as allegations of physical abuse.
"The natural outcome of that is you are diverting resources and the state's not going to be in a position to provide as much of a response to actual physical abuse. It's steering the state away from protecting kids," he pointed out.
Second, the rule exceeds HHS' legal authority as established by Congress by trampling on states' broad authority in family law. He also insisted that the "arbitrary and capricious" rule violates the Administrative Procedure Act.
Third, the rule is riddled with various constitutional problems such as violating the First Amendment's free speech and free exercise clauses.
"A lot of people who participate in foster care do so because it's a way of living out their faith," Skrmetti said. By asking people to "adopt the language and affirm the commitments of gender ideology, the federal government's asking them to turn away from their religious beliefs."
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