Our government has a duty to protect vulnerable children in the foster care system. Taxpayer-funded foster care agencies should never use religious litmus tests to deny these children the chance at having a safe home with a loving family.
But religious extremists and their lawmaker allies want agencies that contract with the government to be allowed to turn away qualified parents because they are the “wrong” religion, are LGBTQ, or don’t satisfy the agencies’ religious tests.
Americans United will continue to fight on behalf of people who were unable to foster children because they couldn’t pass taxpayer-funded agencies’ religious tests.
In Fulton v. Philadelphia, the Supreme Court ruled that because of the specific details of the city’s contracts, Philadelphia must allow a Catholic foster care agency to reject LGBTQ potential foster parents. But the court did not grant agencies nationwide a free pass to discriminate.
There are more than 400,000 children in foster care nationwide. To ensure they have the opportunity to find safe, loving homes, AU will continue fighting on behalf of people like Aimee Maddonna, Fatma Marouf, and Bryn Esplin – loving parents who were turned away by taxpayer-funded agencies because they couldn’t pass religious tests.
Same-sex couples are seven times more likely to foster and adopt children than opposite-sex couples. They are also more likely to adopt older children and kids with special needs, those who are statistically less likely to be adopted.
The Do No Harm Act will help ensure that our laws are a shield to protect religious freedom and not used as a sword to harm others by undermining civil rights laws and denying access to health care.
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