Oregon mother blocked from adopting children over her religious beliefs

This loving mother’s application was rejected because she won’t agree to adhere to gender ideology that conflicts with her faith

Photo by Guillaume de Germain on Unsplash

A loving Oregon mother of five is being prevented from adopting children who need loving homes due to her religious beliefs that contradict the state’s gender indoctrination.

“Jessica is a loving mother who wants to open her home to children in need right now, but Oregon officials are excluding her and countless other families because of their religious beliefs about sexual ethics and the human body,” the Alliance Defending Freedom said in a statement.

The ADF is representing Jessica Bates in its complaint against the Oregon Department of Human Services for rejecting her application to adopt due to her refusal to agree to say things that conflict with her faith, such as “affirming” a child’s “gender identity.”

“Because these caregivers cannot promote Oregon’s dangerous gender ideology to young kids, the state considers them to be unfit parents. That’s false and harmful, needlessly depriving these kids of opportunities to find a loving home. We are urging the 9th Circuit to remind Oregon that the foster and adoption system is supposed to serve the best interests of children, not the state’s ideological crusade,” the ADF’s Senior Counsel Jonathan Scruggs explained in the statement.

Two years ago, Bates applied to become certified to adopt children from foster care in the state of Oregon. While she told ODHS officials she would love any child that came into her home and treat them all as equals, her application was denied because she would not agree to use a child’s preferred pronouns or support the use of cross-sex hormones for transgender-identifying children.

The ADF argues that Oregon is effectively discriminating against Bates on the basis of her devout religious beliefs, preventing religious parents from adopting children who themselves desperately need loving homes.

“Oregon [cannot] justify excluding as prospective parents the hundreds of thousands of Oregonians who share Bates’ religious views about human sexuality...Including people like Bates maximizes the number of families available to adopt children in need and increases the odds every child eventually finds a loving home,” the lawsuit states.

“Bates argues that ‘Oregon’s categorical exclusion uses a sledgehammer when the First Amendment demands a scalpel,’ and that  ‘the federal government and most other states avoid categorical exclusions and match specific children with compatible families...This policy achieves nothing but serves only to violate the First Amendment and harm kids in need of homes.”