Oregon agrees to let Christian mother adopt without embracing LGBT ideology
Oregon officials will allow a Christian mother to adopt children from foster care after initially denying her application because she refused, for religious reasons, to embrace LGBT ideology.
Jessica Bates and officials with the Oregon Department of Human Services (ODHS) and Malheur County reached a settlement last week in U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon.
According to the settlement, “ODHS is prohibited from enforcing OAR § 413-200-0308(2)(k) against Bates or otherwise denying her application because of her religious beliefs that sexual activity should occur only within the confines of a marriage between one man and one woman, and a person should identify and seek to live consistent with his or her biological sex.”
“ODHS is prohibited from requiring Bates to agree to use prescribed words or language, including chosen pronouns, to express views about sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression inconsistent with her religious beliefs described above as a condition of certification,” continued the settlement.
“Defendants agree that Plaintiff is the prevailing party and entitled to costs and attorneys’ fees. Plaintiff shall file a stipulation or motion for attorneys’ fees and costs within 60 days of this Order.”
The agreement allows ODHS to decide “a child’s placement based on its individualized consideration of the child’s needs and of a foster parent’s concerns or limitations (including where religiously motivated) on their ability or willingness to meet the child’s specific needs, including with regard to their sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression.”
Bates was represented by the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a conservative legal group that has won multiple First Amendment cases at the U.S. Supreme Court level.
ADF Senior Counsel Johannes Widmalm-Delphonse said in a statement on Monday that he considered the settlement “a win-win that protects constitutional rights and puts children’s interests first.”
“Every child deserves a loving home, and children suffer when the government excludes people of faith from foster care because of the state’s own ideological crusade,” said Widmalm-Delphonse.
“Oregon officials turned Jessica away just because of her common-sense belief that parents should help children become comfortable with who they are instead of pushing them down a path of confusion and medicalization.”
A widowed mother of five, Bates applied for an adoptive parent certification through ODHS in 2022 to adopt two children younger than 9. ODHS rejected her application because she refused, for religious reasons, to accept a trans-identified child's preferred name and pronouns.
ADF filed a complaint on Bates's behalf against officials with ODHS and Malheur County in April 2023, accusing them of violating her First Amendment rights.
In July of last year, a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 for Bates, with Circuit Judge Daniel Bress, a Trump appointee, writing the majority opinion.
"Oregon's rule, as reflected in the [Resource and Adoptive Families Training] materials, quite clearly restricts and compels speech based on both content and viewpoint," wrote Bress.
"The situation would be no different if the state had restricted parental speech favoring more 'progressive' views of sexuality and gender identity, while compelling speech along the lines of Bates's more traditional understanding."
Circuit Judge Richard Clifton, a George W. Bush appointee, dissented, arguing that the government "should not be powerless to protect children for whom it has parental responsibility and for whom it has decided respect should be given."
"No one should be able, as a matter of right, to require the state to turn over its wards and treat them in ways that are, in the state's judgment, disrespectful and even dangerous," wrote Clifton.
"Oregon has determined that the ability to respect a child's sexual orientation and gender identity is an important qualification for a foster parent. It is not our job to quarrel with that determination."
