Wednesday, July 17, 2019

Bad Bill on Adoption


There are so many problems with the grossly misnamed Equality Act (HR 5/S. 788) that it is impossible to cover them all in a single email.  One of the most offensive problems is how this legislation, which we call the InEquality Act, treats the policies of Christian and other faith-based adoption agencies that operate according to the tenets of their faith.

Essentially, this proposed law makes all religious adoption agencies illegal unless they abandon their religious beliefs and operate as an agency of popular LGBT culture.

One of the stated reasons for the existence of the InEquality Act, which has already passed the House of Representatives and is picking up momentum in the US Senate, is to overcome so-called discrimination against gay and lesbian couples when it comes to the adoption of children. This premise is offensive on multiple levels.
 First of all, let's be crystal clear: There is no right for any couple, LGBT or otherwise, to have children. Children are not property, they are not to be "possessed." It is wrong and highly offensive to assert, as LGBT extremists and their allies in Congress do that the alleged "right" to have children should be treated just as the law treats the right of LGBT couples to own property. Nobody has a "right" to childrenWhen it comes to children's rights, the rights belong to the children, not to the adults.
 
I want to make something clear. There is no proposal in Congress supported by the broad faith community to prohibit so-called "gay adoption." Pending federal legislation assumes that states can embrace the ability of gay couples to adopt children if that is the desire of the state. But proposed legislation in Congress, like the Child Welfare Provider Inclusion Act (HR 897) would allow faith-based adoption and other social service providers to continue to operate according to their faith beliefs. They could, for example, consistent with their faith principles, adopt out children only to opposite-sex married couples who would provide a child the love of both a mother and a father.
 
Contrast this inclusive approach – which discriminates against nobody to the provisions of the InEquality Act which decree that it is illegal discrimination to exclude LGBT couples from adopting children in every case, including where a birth mother specifically desires her child to be adopted through a faith-based adoption agency.



Secondly, the idea that faith-based adoptions should be prohibited is profoundly anti-woman. Many women facing the decision of putting their unborn child up for adoption struggle with intense internal, emotional conflicts. Oftentimes, these women are experiencing unplanned, unwanted pregnancies.

Their pregnancies may even be the result of horrific acts committed against them, such as rape and incest. To their great credit, these women have heroically rejected aborting their unborn children and have instead decided to put them up for adoption after they are born. Incredibly, the InEquality Act would limit their options, and eliminate the ability of women to select an adoption agency that shares their faith or religious values.


Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader


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