Washington, DC
New rules to protect Catholic adoption agencies
Catholic adoption agencies will be able to follow Church teaching without losing state support, after the Trump administration reversed a policy which had been in place since 2016. The Department of Health and Human Services announced that it will no longer deny funding to adoption agencies who refuse to place children with same-sex couples. The bishops’ conference welcomed the decision, saying the old rule had “threatened to shut out faith-based social service providers, namely adoption and foster care agencies that respect a child’s right to a mother and a father”. However, Catholic dioceses are unable to open adoption agencies in a few states, such as Massachussetts and California, which have interpreted anti-discrimination law as excluding Catholic agencies.
