An Oregon mom is now free to begin the process of adopting from the state’s foster care system after officials initially denied her application because she refused to promote gender ideology in her home, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit has ruled.
Jessica Bates filed a lawsuit in April 2023 challenging an Oregon Department of Human Services (ODHS) rule that excluded her from adopting any child—no matter their age or beliefs—because she would not lie to them and tell them that “girls can be boys and vice versa.”
“State officials demanded that I agree to use a child’s preferred pronouns, possibly take a child to Pride parades, and even potentially take an adolescent child to receive dangerous pharmaceutical interventions like hormone shots,” Bates wrote in an opinion piece for Fox News.
Bates told ODHS officials that she would happily love and accept any child placed with her, but officials rejected her application, making her ineligible to adopt any child—even infants or children who share her religious beliefs.
Attorneys with the Alliance Defending Freedom, a non-profit legal group, are representing Bates and argued that ODHS’s policy “needlessly penalizes Bates and many other people of faith for their religious views, compels parents to speak words that violate their conscience, and deprives children in need of the opportunity to find loving homes.”
“I’m suing the state of Oregon for putting politics above children. I only ask for the opportunity to help those in need, yet the state is excluding me on every level – because of my faith,” Bates wrote.
The court has ordered ODHS to reconsider Bates’ application because she will likely succeed in showing that Oregon’s exclusion violates the First Amendment.
“No one thinks, for example, that a state could exclude parents from adopting foster children based on those parents’ political views, race, or religious affiliations,” the 9th Circuit wrote in its ruling in Bates v. Pakseresht. “Adoption is not a constitutional law dead zone. And a state’s general conception of the child’s best interest does not create a force field against the valid operation of other constitutional rights.”
Attorneys with ADF are applauding the court’s decision.
“Every child deserves a loving home, and children suffer when the government excludes people of faith from the adoption and foster system. Jessica is a caring mom of five who is now free to adopt after Oregon officials excluded her because of her common-sense belief that a girl cannot become a boy or vice versa,” said ADF Senior Counsel and Vice President of Litigation Strategy Jonathan Scruggs, who argued before the court on behalf of Bates.
Scruggs continued, “The 9th Circuit was right to remind Oregon that the foster and adoption system is supposed to serve the best interests of children, not the state’s ideological crusade.”
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