Texas to Vote on Religion-Based Adoption Bill
Texas lawmakers are set to take a vote on a bill that could grant state-funded adoption agencies the right to deny potential parents seeking to adopt a child based on certain religious stands.
House Bill 3859 would empower certain adoption centers and foster care agencies to refuse adoption to parents who they claim may have questionable religious backgrounds, The Daily Beast reported.
Also known as the "Freedom to Serve Children Act," the bill seeks to protect the religious rights of adoption providers, giving them the option to decline their services to those who they deem to be not in conformity with the "provider's sincerely held religious beliefs," according to CNN.
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Critics claim that the bill encourages discrimination and may affect those from the LGBT community or those who adhere to no religion or other beliefs opposite to the provider's.
"This would allow adoption agencies to turn away qualified, loving parents who are perhaps perfect in every way because the agency has a difference in religious belief," Human Rights Campaign senior counsel Catherine Oakley told CBS.
"This goes against the best interest of the child," she said.
But the author of HB 3859, State Representative James Frank insisted that this is not the case since the bill directs that alternative options be given to potential parents in the event their request is denied.
Frank also noted that the bill will allow for "reasonable accommodations so everyone can participate in the system."
"My guess is if you have an LGBT agency they're going to pick an LGBT family, and if you have a Baptist agency they may be more likely to pick a Baptist family," said the congressman. "They're free to do that and should be free to do that."
However, Austin-based lawyer Suzanne Bryant countered that while the bill encourages that, no process is in place to ensure that those denied based on religious grounds will be referred to another.
"Say you call an agency and say, 'I'm Jewish,' and it's a Catholic agency and they hang up on you," she said. "The bill says you can be referred to another agency, but there's no mechanism to set that up."
Voting on the bill was scheduled on Monday after Saturday's original schedule was moved.
