The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued a new regulation today that will help ensure faith-based organizations can continue serving vulnerable children and families through foster-care and adoption services.
Russell Moore, president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, commended the administration’s work to ensure that communities of faith remain a vital part of the child-welfare system.
“This new regulation from the Trump administration is a welcome signal that the child-welfare system is about the welfare of children—not proxy culture wars. The previous administration's policy change excluded faith-based organizations with convictions about the need for a child to have both a mother and a father. The children in our foster system are facing a crisis, as tens of thousands age out of the program each year. Every American ought to be able to come together to solve this problem. Today’s move is a good start in that direction.”
The problem today’s new rule seeks to solve at the federal level began in January 2017 when the Obama-era provisions were quickly installed, going into effect days before the inauguration of the Trump Administration. The previous administration’s rule redefined federal nondiscrimination policies as applied to foster-care and adoption providers in a way that excluded many faith-based groups. Today’s rule returns HHS regulations back in line with all other federal nondiscrimination law and Supreme Court precedent.
