No Foster Care and Adoption Discrimination in HHS appropriations

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No Foster Care and Adoption Discrimination in HHS appropriations

Dear [Decision Maker],

I urge you to act to strip the Aderholt Amendment allowing discrimination in foster care and adoption services from the FY19 House Labor-HHS appropriations bill and ensure that the measure is NOT included in any Senate or final appropriations bill.

The measure would allow taxpayer-funded foster care and adoption service providers to discriminate against both children in care, and against prospective parents, based on sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, and marital status.

The measure breaks the cardinal rule of child welfare services: to act in the best interest of the child. Indeed, this amendment would HARM CHILDREN.

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This measure would greatly harm the 440,000 children in foster care, particularly the 117,000 who are waiting to be adopted into loving, forever homes.  There is a crisis in foster care due to the huge shortage of available families for children.  Each year, over half the children waiting to be adopted do not find a loving home, and most tragically, over 17,000 foster youth age out of care without a forever family.  Those youth are at greater risk of involvement with the criminal justice system, homelessness, unemployment, and being trafficked.

Under the amendment, states which prohibit such discrimination in foster care and adoption - eight states and the district of Columbia do so by statute, and many more states have nondiscrimination policies for parents and children - stand to lose hundreds of millions of dollars in child welfare funding.
 
Just this year, in the wake of the influx of more children into foster care due to the opioid epidemic, Congress passed Family First to help increase the homes available to foster children.  This amendment undermines that effort.  For example, in 2016, 28% of parents adopting from foster care were single.  That number could be dramatically impacted if adoption and foster care providers are allowed to discriminate based on marital status.

I urge you to speak out against this amendment, to let your leadership know you will not support a funding bill with the measure included, and to vote against any appropriations measure that includes such discriminatory provisions.

Please let me know where you stand on this issue of grave concern for America's children.

Sincerely,