A polarizing debate over the role of faith-based adoption organizations, and their ability to exclude same-sex couples, has tangled an update of Kansas adoption and foster care laws.
A bill needed to revise the rules passed the House without a dissenting vote in late February. But it drew opposition in the Senate this week when a controversial amendment was added.
The amendment, offered by Sen. Molly Baumgardner, a Louis-burg Republican, would let the state contract with faith-based organizations that make adoption and foster care placement decisions based on their sincerely held religious beliefs.
That, said opponents, would give such organizations license to reject same-sex couples.
We should never use faith as a weapon, said Sen. Lynn Rogers, a Wichita Democrat. Theres a difference in letting your beliefs inform your political choices and letting your politics enforce your religion.
Yet one side argued that the state needs help from faith-based organizations to increase adoptions and stable placement opportunities. Kansas has seen record numbers of foster children flood the system in recent years. Without language allowing them to make decisions based on their beliefs, church-affiliated organizations might not participate in the state system.
This bill protects Catholic Charities and other religious-affiliated groups to continue providing children with loving and safe homes in accordance with their religious beliefs, said Senate President Susan Wagle, a Wichita Republican.
During earlier testimony on the issue in a House committee, Deborah Snapp, an official with Catholic Charities of Southwest Kansas, confirmed the organization would need such protections to continue working with the state.
If we were expected to place children with families that were not consistent with our faith belief, we would not be able to continue to provide adoption services, Snapp said.
The endorsement of the amendment by Gina Meier-Hummel, secretary of the Kansas Department for Children and Families, has drawn criticism from those who say its inconsistent with her pledge to have zero tolerance for discrimination.
You cant say gay couples arent good enough to be parents and at the same time say, but were not discriminating against gay couples, Tom Witt, executive director of Equality Kansas, told members
of the House committee.
Meier-Hummel said the protections were necessary to address barriers discouraging faith-based adoption agencies from coming to Kansas.
On Thursday, the Senate passed the bill, with the Baumgardner amendment, 24-12.
Sen. Barbara Bollier, a Mission Hills Republican, said she opposed passage of the bill because it sent the state down a path to theocracy.
