The Trump administration is protecting religious adoption and foster care agencies that were targeted by Obama-era regulations that required those receiving federal assistance what it called "discriminatory" standards in placing children.
"Faith-based organizations that provide foster care services not only perform a great service for their communities, they are exercising a legally protected right to practice their faith through good works," Lynn Johnson, assistant secretary for the Department of Health and Human Services' Administration for Children in a statement, reports The Washington Free Beacon.
"The government should not be in the business of forcing foster care providers to close their doors because of their faith. Religious freedom is a fundamental human right," the statement added.
The administration recently granted an exemption in South Carolina for one of the state's largest foster care agencies, Miracle Hill Ministries, which allows placements only in Christian households. The Trump administration agreed that religious partners are vital for caring for children.
In other states, such as Illinois and Massachusetts, religious providers were forced to close because they refused placements in homosexual households.
Mark Rienzi, the attorney for the non-profit Becket Fund for Religious Liberty at the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, said he is glad for the move to protect religious freedom. The archdiocese says the city is violating its religious liberties by trying to cut off adoption and foster care programs while the city is facing shortages in caregivers.
"There were raised fears that some HHS requirements would kick religious providers out, so it was very good for the agency to make clear that that's not what federal law requires," Rienzi said. "This takes federal law and the Constitution's requirement to respect the civil rights of believers seriously."
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