The House Appropriations Committee marked-up the fiscal 19 Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies appropriations bill. Rep. Robert Aderholt’s (R-Ala.) amendment to protect faith-based child welfare providers from government discrimination passed 29-23.
Illinois, California, Massachusetts, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C. have removed faith-based agencies from their child welfare systems because they operate according to tenets of their religious faith.
While millions of American were voting, Philadelphia foster parents were in court fighting the government’s attempt to shut down Catholic Charities adoption and foster care services because it is faith-based. Nearly half of all Catholic Charities adoptions nationally are for special needs children, so their permanent closure would be especially devastating. It was a somber launch to National Adoption Month for children seeking families.
The Trump administration’s Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) kicked off the first day of November’s National Adoption Month by proposing a rule change that will provide much needed relief to the over 440,000 children in foster care. By eliminating burdensome and restrictive requirements placed on faith-based providers in the final days of the Obama Administration, President Trump is ensuring that faith-based adoption and foster care agencies will be able to once again focus on helping children in need, not using their resources to fight government attempts to shut them down. With this change, children will have the maximum number of diverse placement agencies working on their behalf. This is good policy that will serve the well-being of children and families around our country.
As Foster Care Awareness Month begins, the impact coronavirus is having on some of the most vulnerable children and those trying to help them cannot be ignored.
Children are more at risk of abuse and hospitals across the country have observed an increase in suspected cases of child abuse in March and April. One Florida hospital typically sees one or two cases a month but has seen eight in just the past few weeks.
Catholic Social Services (CSS) is a faith-based foster care agency that has served the City of Philadelphia for over 100 years. In March 2018, city officials targeted the agency over its religious beliefs about marriage, forcing the agency to either agree to certify same-sex couples as foster parents or end its foster care services. Since CSS would not agree to violate its religious beliefs by certifying same-sex foster parents, the city ended its partnership with CSS. As a result, dozens of CSS’s foster homes sit empty—even as the city faces an unprecedented foster care crisis. CSS filed a lawsuit alleging religious discrimination and, after losing at the federal district and appeals courts, recently asked the Supreme Court to hear the case. The Court will soon decide whether to grant or deny a hearing.
Shamber Flore spent her early childhood in the roughest parts of town. She was exposed to gangs, prostitution, and drugs all before kindergarten.
Stephanie Curry and her twin sister Jacqueline were born prematurely in a Los Angeles hospital, each weighing less than two pounds. Their birth mother—who disappeared shortly after giving birth—struggled with drug use and left the two small babies addicted to cocaine…
