Jessica Bates (Left) with her children / Alliance Defending Freedom
A federal appeals court ruled July 24 that a Christian single mother in Oregon is temporarily exempted from a state department rule that had barred her from adopting because she refused to promote gender ideology to adopted children or take them to pride parades.
Legal nonprofit Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) stated in a news release that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit decided that the Oregon Department of Human Services’ (ODHS) exclusion of Jessica Bates from the adoption system likely violates the First Amendment. The ruling allows her to begin the adoption process while her lawsuit plays out. ADF is representing Bates, a mother of five, in court.
The contended ODHS policy requires “that prospective parents applying to adopt children from foster care must agree to ‘respect, accept, and support’ the children’s sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression,” according to the July 24 ruling.
Bates had sued officials from ODHS in April 2023 after her application to adopt children from foster care was rejected on the grounds that she was unwilling to tell children that they can change their genders. She also objected to using inaccurate pronouns for adopted children or taking them to pride parades, citing her Christian beliefs.
ADF stated in the release, “Although Bates told ODHS officials that she would happily love and accept any child placed with her, officials rejected her application, making her ineligible to adopt any child — even infants or children who share her religious beliefs.”
However, the appeals court supported Bates and ordered ODHS to reconsider her application as her lawsuit continues.
“No one thinks, for example, that a state could exclude parents from adopting foster children based on those parents’ political views, race, or religious affiliations,” the court stated in its ruling, according to ADF. “Adoption is not a constitutional law dead zone. And a state’s general conception of the child’s best interest does not create a force field against the valid operation of other constitutional rights.”
According to ADF, several other foster and adoptive parents, religious liberty groups, free speech and family advocates, 20 states, and detransitioners all supported Bates’ case, filing amicus briefs with the appeals court in January and calling for the court to recognize that the ODHS rule violates Bates’ religious freedom rights.
ADF Senior Counsel and Vice President of Litigation Strategy Jonathan Scruggs, who argued in court on Bates’ behalf, applauded the appeals court’s ruling.
“Because caregivers like Jessica cannot promote Oregon’s dangerous gender ideology to young kids and take them to events like pride parades, the state considers them to be unfit parents. That is false and incredibly dangerous, needlessly depriving kids of opportunities to find a loving home,” Scruggs stated in the release. “The 9th Circuit was right to remind Oregon that the foster and adoption system is supposed to serve the best interests of children, not the state’s ideological crusade.”
