Supporting children

Faith-based providers play a critical role in our nation’s child welfare system by placing thousands of children in loving homes each year. Eighty-four percent of children in the system seeking families qualify as “hard-to-place”, i.e. kids who are older, have special needs, or come from troubled backgrounds. Faith-based providers excel in this space.

45 percent of Catholic Charities and 32 percent of Bethany Christian Service adoption placements are for “hard-to-place” children.

Unfair discrimination

What these faith-based providers do for women, children, and for our communities is irreplaceable. And yet, state and local governments across the country are discriminating against these faith-based adoption agencies and foster care providers — and in some cases shutting them down — because they offer birth mothers the choice of placing their children in homes with both a mother and a father.

Religious freedom

As attacks on religious freedom become more blatant and mainstream, the need to protect these faith-based child welfare providers from discrimination becomes even more immediate.

The Child Welfare Provider Inclusion Act, introduced in the House by Rep. Mike Kelly (R-Pennsylvania) and in the Senate by Sen. Mike Enzi (R-Wyoming), would prevent this discrimination, safeguard the choice of birth mothers to place their children in homes with both a mother and a father, and help place thousands of children in their forever homes with their forever families.