On Wednesday, the federal government agreed to allow federally funded foster care agencies in South Carolina to reject same-sex or non-Christian couples. The waiver issued by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will enable Greenville’s Miracle Hill Ministries foster care agency to continue to receive federal funds.
The waiver requires any family rejected as foster parents by Miracle Hill to be referred to other foster care agencies or the state Department of Social Services. The exemption was added since regulation approved by the Obama administration does not allow publicly licensed and funded foster care agencies to serve specific religions.
Gov. Henry McMaster, who requested the waiver, thanked the Trump administration for allowing all foster care agencies to operate in South Carolina. According to the state, Miracle Hill Ministries accounts for 15 percent of foster care placements.
“As Americans, our fundamental right to practice religion, regardless of our faith, will not be in jeopardy under this administration,” McMaster said in a statement.
Meanwhile, gay rights groups and non-Christian religious groups opposed the waiver, saying it would limit the number of people willing to be foster parents while allowing federally funded agencies to discriminate. “Let’s call this decision what it is: state-sanctioned and government-funded discrimination,” said Christina Wilson Remlin, an attorney for Children’s Rights, counsel for South Carolina’s foster children.
The organization has been successful in suing South Carolina over its foster care system, which they allege places many children in institutions, takes children far from biological families and denies medical treatment to foster children in need.
Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the civil rights group Anti-Defamation League, said he was shocked that the federal government granted a waiver to enable a federally funded adoption agency to discriminate.
“Allowing a taxpayer-funded agency to discriminate against Jews and other minorities is outrageous and sets a dangerous precedent for our nation. This is clearly unlawful and will not hold up in court,” he said, adding that children shouldn’t be denied a loving foster or adoptive home on the basis of sexual orientation or religion.
The Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ advocacy group, called the exemption “unconscionable.”
HRC State Legislative Director and Senior Counsel Cathryn Oakley said that enabling a federal contractor to reject qualified prospective parents limited the pool of prospective parents, which contradicts the interests of the children waiting to be placed in foster care. “The federal government has a compelling interest in ensuring federal contractors are providing quality care, and in ensuring that taxpayers aren’t footing the bill for taxpayer-funded discrimination,” she added.
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The number of children under the protection of the South Carolina Department of Social Services increased from roughly 3,100 children in 2012 to nearly 4,600 in 2018, according to data published by the Chronicle of Social Change. Meanwhile, the number of foster children sent into an institution or group home nearly doubled between 2012 and 2016.
Source: NBC News