Trump Protecting Religious Freedom and Vulnerable Children

What You Need To Know

The Trump administration is reversing an Obama-era rule restricting the role of faith-based organizations in foster care and adoption.

President Trump is promoting religious freedom and improving the welfare of vulnerable children by protecting faith-based adoption and foster care providers.

• President Trump is putting the best interests of children first by turning back an Obama-era rule that limits the role of faith-based providers in foster care and adoption.
• In its place, the Administration is putting forward new rules to allow faith-based providers to continue to serve their communities consistent with their religious beliefs.
• The Obama rule jeopardized the ability of faith-based providers to continue serving their communities, penalizing them for their closely held beliefs.

o   The Federal government should not be in the business of forcing child welfare providers to choose between helping children and their faith.

• By excluding thousands of willing organizations and families, the Obama rule threatened the well-being of children in search of a good home.

o   The implementation of a similar rule in Boston has led to the loss of over 2000 foster families since 2006.

Faith-based organizations’ role in foster care and adoption is critical for hundreds of thousands of vulnerable children.

• Faith-based organizations have long provided social services to poor and underprivileged children.
• There are approximately 443,000 children in foster care nationwide, with more than 100,000 awaiting adoption.
• Fueled in part by the opioid crisis, there has been a dramatic increase in children entering state custody.

o   The number of children in foster care has risen for five consecutive years.

o   The number of cases of children entering the foster care system due to parental drug use has more than doubled since 2000.

• Allowing faith-based organizations to provide an enhanced role in foster care will take the pressure off some states who are need of additional foster families and foster care capacity.

This reversal is the latest example of the President’s commitment to protecting the rights of all faith-based communities.

• The President has made it a priority to support every American’s fundamental right to religious freedom and expression.
• Upon taking office, the President signed an executive order to enhance religious freedom and restore the ideals that our nation was founded upon.
• The President took action to ensure Americans and organizations are not forced to violate their religious or moral beliefs by complying with Obamacare’s contraceptive mandate.
• President Trump has unequivocally stood with faith-based organizations – like the Little Sisters of the Poor – in the courts.
• The President reversed an Obama Administration policy denying federal disaster aid to houses of worship.