House Panel Passes Adoption Amendment for Religious Liberty

Caleb Tolin | July 16, 2018
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The House Appropriations Committee last week advanced an amendment that protects adoption agencies from government persecution based on religious or moral convictions.

The Amendment to Labor, HHS, Education Appropriations Bill states that any federally funded government could not discriminate against any “child welfare services” that refuse service to individuals based on “sincerely held religious beliefs or moral convictions.”

“The Federal Government, and any State or local government that receives Federal funding for any program that provides child welfare services shall not discriminate or take an adverse action against a child welfare service provider on the basis that the provider has declined or will decline to provide, facilitate, or refer for a child welfare service that conflicts with, or under circumstances that conflict with, the provider’s sincerely held religious beliefs or moral convictions," the amendment states.

So, a Christian foster service could refuse to allow someone with a background in the adult film industry to adopt one of their children. Likewise, a Muslim foster service could refuse to allow someone who eats pork to adopt one of their children.

Naturally, the media decided this was a War on the Gays.

CNN’s headline for this story focused on how providers could “refuse same-sex couples” access to adoption services. LGBTQ Nation’s headline said Republicans voted to make it legal for a “nationwide” ban on gay and lesbian couples from adopting.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi threw in her two cents saying, “House Republicans chose to sacrifice the well-being of little children to push a bigoted, anti-LGBTQ agenda."

Representative Mark Pocan (D-WI), a gay congressman, tweeted that this amendment “could allow discrimination against #LGBT people seeking to adopt and foster children.”

Representative Rep. Robert Aderholt (R-AL), who proposed the amendment, said in a statement, “The amendment I introduced seeks to prevent these [state] 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.”

In case the Democrats need a reminder of this slightly relevant document, the Constitution states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”

(Cover Photo: Nick Youngson CC)

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