- There are more than 400,000 children
in the foster care system in the United States.
So the government must want as many adoption providers
as possible working to find homes for these kids, right?
Actually, no.
Instead, some state governments are cutting ties with
and in some cases
attempting to shut down adoption providers.
Why?
Because they don't approve
of those adoption providers' religious beliefs.
One provider being targeted for closure
is New Hope Family Services in New York,
a state with over 25,000 children in the foster care system.
New Hope Family Services was founded in 1965
as a Christian ministry dedicated to finding adoptive homes
for children whose birth mothers or parents
could not care for their children themselves.
It also has a reputation for being able to find homes,
even for "hard to adopt children with tough needs."
For example, children born with drug addiction.
New Hope has placed more than a thousand children
into loving adoptive homes.
New York State law permits birth parents
to specify the religion of the family
who they want to adopt their child.
Many birth mothers and adoptive parents,
choose to work with New Hope precisely because they value
the ministry's religious faith.
New Hope is a Christian ministry, a faith based charity.
So as you would expect,
one of new Hope's convictions is that the best environment
for each child includes a mother and father in a committed
and stable marriage.
That's not a radical idea.
Many people of different faiths or no faith,
want that for their children.
And in 2010,
when the New York Legislature passed a law
authorizing unmarried or same sex couples to adopt,
the governor emphasized
that this law left faith based adoption agencies
free to continue to obey the teachings of their faiths.
So if a birth mother wants to place her child
in a Christian home or a Muslim home
or a home that includes a married mother and father,
that is her choice to make.
If she wants to place her child with a single parent
or a same sex couple,
there are plenty of adoption agencies in New York
that will help her achieve that.
Either way, no one should force a birth mother,
an adoption provider, or adoptive parents
to violate their religious beliefs.
But that freedom for birth parents,
adoptive parents, and adoptive agencies
is intolerable to some unelected bureaucrats,
who have put their own political priorities
above the urgent need to place children
in as many adoptive homes as possible.
In a letter to New Hope in 2018,
New York officials said it found the ministry's policy,
referrals and all, impermissible.
The officials said that
if New Hope did not change its policy
and betray its deepest beliefs in the process,
the state would shut it down.
Even though New York never passed any law
that would force New Hope to change its policy.
These bureaucrats have forced New Hope
to make an impossible choice:
either violate their religious convictions
or abandon their ministry.
In the name of tolerance,
the government threatens to destroy ministries
like New Hope,
deny services to parents who desperately need them,
and most importantly delay
or prevent children from being adopted into loving homes.
And in the name of tolerance,
those officials are trampling
on a core First Amendment protection:
the freedom to obey your faith and your conscience.
In response,
New Hope has filed a federal lawsuit
with the help of Alliance Defending Freedom,
a lawsuit to make sure New York State officials
don't get away with targeting people of faith,
violating citizen's core constitutional rights,
and sacrificing the wellbeing of children.
Hanging in the balance are children
like those served by New Hope
who desperately need homes and loving parents.
What could be more important than that?
The U.S. Supreme Court will soon hear another case,
Fulton versus the City of Philadelphia,
in which a faith-based foster care agency
is being prevented from placing children in homes
consistent with their religious beliefs.
Along with its work with New Hope,
ADF filed an Amicus brief,
asking the court to rule in favor of Fulton
and children across the nation.
These cases can make all the difference
in whether children will find loving homes.
You can follow both cases at
www.ADFlegal.org/keepkidsfirst.