Samuel Case, FISM News

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Arizona Governor Doug Ducey (R) recently signed a bill, SB 1399, protecting the religious freedom of faith-based adoption and foster care agencies that object to placing children in the homes of LBGTQ parents. 

The new law bars any government agency or private lawsuit from taking “any discriminatory action” against an adoption agency if it declines to provide services “based on or in a manner consistent” with the organizations “religious belief or exercise of religions.” 

The Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) released a statement praising the bill for “keeping kids first.” 

When faith-based foster care service providers are empowered to operate according to their beliefs, more providers can recruit and serve more foster families to provide more loving homes to children in Arizona’s foster care system . . .  We commend Gov. Ducey, bill sponsor Sen. Sine Kerr, and other supporters in the Arizona Legislature for enacting these critical protections and keeping kids first.

FISM News has previously reported on multiple instances of Christian adoption agencies being sued on charges of discrimination. Last month the state of Michigan paid a Catholic adoption and foster care ministry $250,000 in legal fees after the state tried to force the ministry to place children in LGBTQ homes. 

In the summer of 2021 the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the city of Philadelphia violated the first amendment when it excluded a Catholic ministry from its government program for refusing to allow same-sex couples to be foster parents.

Ducey signed a pair of bills in late March addressing controversies surrounding the trans community. One law bars trans women (biological males) from competing in female school sports and another prevents doctors from performing gender reassignment surgery on minors.