A cohort of Republican attorneys general are calling on the Biden administration to roll back a new rule they say will remove faith-based providers from the foster care system if they don’t change their religious beliefs about sexual orientation and identity of gender.
Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall, along with 18 of his Republican colleagues in other states, sent a letter On Monday, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) informed them that a proposed new rule changing requirements for foster families violates the Constitution and discriminates against people who hold a biblical view of sexuality and gender.
The proposed rule, Safe and Appropriate Foster Care Placement Requirements, would require foster families to use “the identified pronouns and chosen name of a child in foster care and allow the child to dress in an age-appropriate manner that he believes reflects his self-identified gender.” identity and expression. »
Agencies must also ensure “safe and appropriate” placement for any child who identifies as LGBTQ. To be “safe and appropriate,” providers must establish an environment “free from hostility, mistreatment or abuse based on the child’s LGBTQI+ status.”
HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra described this new rule and other regulatory changes as “game-changing” and said, “This will change the way we view foster care treatment for our foster children, but no longer more importantly, how we approach treatment. the people we rely on to care for children in foster care.
But the attorneys general warned that “the proposed rule will harm children by limiting the number of available foster families, families by risking kinship placements, and states by increasing costs and diminishing care options.” “.
“These injuries will be suffered while HHS fails to address a problem that the proposed rule does not even prove exists in foster care,” the AGs wrote.
The attorneys general noted that the rule seeks to undermine a Supreme Court decision that protected faith-based providers in the foster care system if they “do not conform to their religious beliefs regarding sexual orientation and gender identity “.
As CBN News reported, in Fulton v. City of PhiladelphiaThe court ruled that the city of Philadelphia was wrong to reject Catholic Social Services because the group said it would not violate its religious beliefs regarding sexuality.
“Philadelphia’s refusal to contract with CSS to provide foster care services unless it agrees to certify same-sex couples as adoptive parents cannot survive strict scrutiny and violates the First Amendment” , wrote Chief Justice John Roberts.
The AG’s letter emphasizes that the foster care system depends on both individuals and faith-based organizations. Nearly 391,000 children were in foster care in 2022 and it is estimated that 416,500 children will be in foster care by 2027.
“Without faith-based organizations and foster homes, the foster care system would face a critical lack of placement options,” the AGs wrote, adding that “caring for children in need is a duty of faith Christian,” citing Mark 9:37 and James. 1:27.
“Since the first century, Christians around the world have answered the call to provide a home and family for children who had neither,” Marshall said in a statement Monday. “Alabama has a uniquely strong faith-based foster care and adoption community, and I will fight this administration for them every step of the way.”
The other attorneys general signing the letter were from Alaska, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia.
“The federal government should be looking for ways to increase the number of foster homes, not decrease them,” they write.
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