Action | Adopt new standards for licensed private child-placing agencies. |
Stage | Proposed |
Comment Period | Ended on 4/1/2011 |
The proposed adoption regulations would have the effect of forcing many Christian organizations, partiuclarly Catholic organizations, out of the business of assisting with adoptions. This is wrong-headed in the extreme. The people who are most active, most experienced and most successful at placing children for adoption are Christians, especially Catholics. Why would anyone who cares about children want to see Christians sidelined like this? The reason Christians would be sidelined is because of the provision requiring agencies not to consider sexual orientation as a factor in adoption. This is an intensely controversial moral issue, and there is a consensus on it. the overwhelming majority of Americans and Virginians are opposed to gay couples adopting. This regulation would have the effect of endorsing a "consensus" on the opposite side of this issue that does not exist. For the sake of children, for the sake of our Commonwealth's tradition of religious freedom and for the sake of democratic process, these proposed regulations must be amended.