Tag Archives: Topic: Adoption

David Fench at National Review: Sixty-nine percent of all adoption credit claims during the 2012 filing season were selected for audit.

AP: Portugal’s Parliament has passed a law allowing same-sex married couples to adopt their partners’ children, but lawmakers rejected legislation granting gay couples the same adoption rights as heterosexuals.

CNN: The adoptive parents of a child born with male and female organs say South Carolina mutilated their son by choosing a gender and having his male genitalia surgically removed.

Tony Perkins at LifeSiteNews: Now, some in Congress want to get in on the act with a bill that would intentionally deprive children of a mother. Under this legislation, the government would punish any adoption agency that gives priority to married, heterosexual couples.

Wisconsin Family Action sent a letter to Congressman Paul Ryan (R-WI) Friday inviting him to  clarify what he believes regarding the best interest of children.

USA Today: Asked at a town-hall-style meeting Monday in Wisconsin about the issue, Ryan said he would “vote differently these days” and still opposes gay marriage. In 1999, the congressman voted in favor of banning same-sex couples in the District of Columbia from adopting.

Breitbart.com: President Vladimir Putin on Friday said Russia could change its agreements for the adoption of Russian children with France and other Western states that are legalising gay marriage.

NY Daily News: The case of a same-sex Connecticut couple accused of repeatedly raping and abusing two of their nine adopted boys is headed for trial.

Christian Concern: One of Britain’s most influential family lawyers has attacked the Coalition’s same-sex ‘marriage’ plans, saying they go against principles established for thousands of years. Baroness Butler-Sloss said plans to redefine marriage would lead to the destruction of the meaning of marriage without giving same sex couples any significant new rights.

Religion Clause Blog: Publicly funded child-care agencies and foster homes across the state also will be barred from placing religious items in children’s rooms without their consent, and religious materials will be given only to children who request them.

ABC: Puerto Rico’s government is supporting an effort to overturn a ban on gay adoption in the U.S. island territory.

Catholic Culture: Senate Bill 11 is particularly troubling because the religious liberty of all Coloradans has been discarded under the guise of equality.

Colorado Connection: Many of those opposed to the bill said that it discriminated against those who are opposed to same-sex civil unions for religious reasons, with an attorney for the conservative group Alliance Defending Freedom equating it to “religious intolerance.”

AP: The German government wants to allow women to use false names when giving birth in hospitals while still ensuring that children born this way can learn the mother’s name after turning 16.

Christian Science Monitor: The Michigan case aims to allow same-sex couples to adopt children and, therefore, to marry, but it’s likely to be impacted by two landmark gay-rights cases before the US Supreme Court.

Religion Clause Blog: The conclusion was based on the finding that St. Margaret’s violates the Equality Act 2010 by discriminating against non-Catholics, and against same-sex couples, in placing children for adoption.(OSCR press release.)

Washington Post: A lesbian whose adoption request was recently denied by Puerto Rico’s Supreme Court is appealing the ruling.

ABC: Two Detroit-area nurses filed a lawsuit to try to overturn restrictions on adoption by same-sex partners. But at the judge’s invitation, the case took an extraordinary turn and now will test the legality of a 2004 constitutional amendment that stipulates Michigan only recognizes marriages between a man and a woman.

Turtle Bay and Beyond: The Court establishes that the impossibility of second-parent adoption in a same-sex relationship is discriminatory when such adoption is possible for unmarried heterosexual couples, although the exclusion of the biological parent. The reasoning may be thus summarised: If the woman had been a man, the adoption would have been possible, so it must be possible in the name of non-discrimination according to sexual orientation while the woman is not a man.

Belfast Telegraph: A legal victory for a lesbian couple who want to jointly raise one partner’s child could lead to same sex couples in Northern Ireland being allowed to adopt, a gay rights activist has said.

Bill Blacquiere of Bethany Christian Services at Christian Post: We are working every day to protect our religious freedom. We are partnering with organizations like Focus on the Family, Alliance Defending Freedom, the Heritage Foundation, and the Institutional Religious Freedom Alliance to safeguard religious freedom. But we need those who stand with us to let their voice be heard.

AFP on Google: Russia expressed “serious worry” Wednesday over the fate of a Russian boy adopted by an American woman who did not reveal that she is a lesbian, Moscow’s latest broadside in a growing war of words over adoption.

Washington Post: Puerto Rico’s Supreme Court narrowly voted Wednesday to uphold a law banning gay couples from adopting children. The 5-4 vote came . . .

Gatestone Institute: Spain has acceded to the demands of the Islamist government in Morocco by agreeing that Moroccan children adopted by Spanish families must remain culturally and religiously Muslim.

ABC News 4: In October, the guardian ad litem for 3-year-old Baby Veronica caught in the middle of a custody battle filed a brief to the United States Supreme Court in support of the toddler’s adoptive parents, asking the high court to hear the case. | SCOTUS Blog Case Information

AP: France’s lower house of parliament on Tuesday approved a sweeping bill to legalize gay marriage and allow same-sex couples to adopt children, handing a major legislative victory to President Francois Hollande’s Socialists on a divisive social issue.

AZ Capitol Times: Saying members of the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community deserve equal treatment under Arizona law, a Democratic lawmaker has introduced four bills addressing employment, adoption and marriage.

NC Register: Around 200 opponents of a Colorado civil unions bill rallied at the state capitol Jan. 25, warning that the legislation not only redefines marriage but could shut down Catholic adoption agencies in the state.

Christian Institute: A Roman Catholic adoption charity faces de-registration — because it expects couples to be married for at least two years before adopting kids. Scotland’s charity regulator admits the St Margaret’s adoption agency provides a valuable service – but says the marriage policy discriminates against gay couples.

Telegraph: A Roman Catholic adoption agency faces being stripped of its charitable status after regulators ruled it is discriminating against gay couples.

Christian Institute: A child of a ‘royal gay marriage’ should be an heir to the throne, even if the child is not genetically connected to the royal line, an MP says. Labour MP Paul Flynn wanted to change the Succession to the Crown Bill so that an adopted child or one conceived using insemination would become monarch.

Russian Legal Information Agency: A Californian court has announced the verdict in a custody case involving a Russian child adopted by an American same-sex couple, the Russian Legal Information Agency (RAPSI/rapsinews.com) reports on Monday, citing a copy of the court order.

AP: Russia’s ombudsman for children’s rights sought on Thursday to reassure American would-be adoptive parents that they will be allowed to take their children back to the United States. But some Americans with court rulings in their favor say they’re still in legal limbo.

Rasmussen: A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 18% of American Adults think the current level of difficulty to adopt in this country is about right. Forty-four percent (44%) feel it is too hard to adopt a child here. Only five percent (5%) believe it’s too easy.

LifeNews: As a result, the number of U.S. infant adoptions (about 90,000 in 1971) has fallen from 22,291 in 2002 to 18,078 in 2007, according to the most recent five-year tally from the private National Council for Adoption.

Baptist Press: Russia’s ban on adoptions by American parents, considered a retaliatory response to U.S. sanctions against Russia for human rights abuses, will instead punish vulnerable orphans languishing in the foreign country, Christians at the forefront of the issue fear.

Catholic Culture: Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, the chief foreign-affairs spokesman for the Moscow patriarchate, said that it would be unjust to send orphans abroad because “they won’t get a truly Christian upbringing.”

AP: Russia’s parliament on Wednesday gave overwhelming preliminary approval to a measure banning Americans from adopting Russian children, a harsh retaliatory move against U.S. human rights legislation.

AP: Russia’s foreign minister on Tuesday strongly criticized a proposal in the country’s parliament that would ban Americans from adopting Russian children.

Catholic New York: On Dec. 11, oral arguments in that appeal are scheduled before New York’s Second Circuit Court of Appeals; representing the foundation, pro bono, is the Alliance Defending Freedom. The foundation also has a raft of endorsements from organizations and prominent individuals, including Cardinal Dolan, supporting its effort.

LifeSiteNews: That means that if 2011 was an average adoption year, Planned Parenthood helped with one adoption for every 2,625 abortions they performed.

Christian Institute: People who support a Roman Catholic adoption agency that won’t do gay adoptions are like racist bigots, a lawyer for the Charity Commission suggested. But a judge rejected the astonishing attack, saying beliefs about the traditional family have a legitimate place in a broadminded society.

AP: Q: WHAT COUNTRIES HAVE LEGALIZED GAY MARRIAGE?

Boston Globe: A box in which parents can leave their babies anonymously without any legal risk opened Wednesday in a town in northwestern Russia — part of an effort that activists hope will save many young lives.

LifeSiteNews: Court of Appeal judges turned down a mother’s plea not to have her two children adopted by a homosexual couple. The mother of the two boys, aged four and six, appealed an earlier court decision that ruled she was incapable of looking after her children because of alcoholism, when she discovered that councillors in the north London borough of Camden had decided the boys would be placed with two homosexual men.

AP: But days after Austin-Knight’s children were put in foster care, she met foster mother Krista King at a park as part of an effort in Florida to encourage more foster parents to communicate with birth parents, let them talk to their children and honor their child-rearing wishes. Similar programs are in California, Virginia and New Mexico. Several other states – including Oregon, New Hampshire and Washington – provide legal representation or mentorship for birth parents.

NPR (AP): Unmarried and same-sex couples in Northern Ireland should be allowed to adopt children, a Belfast judge ruled Thursday, overturning a 1987 adoption law that discriminated against both groups . . . Belfast High Court Justice Seamus Treacy ruled that the law clearly violated European human rights laws on privacy and discrimination. | The Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission’s Application [2012] NIQB 77

Mercury News: An appeals court ruled Friday that a Mobile County woman can’t adopt her female partner’s child because of Alabama’s law defining marriage as being between a man and woman. The Alabama Court of Civil Appeals ruled that Cari Searcy can’t adopt her partner’s child even though the couple was married in California.

Sacramento Bee: A court ruling sending a Native American girl back to Oklahoma from her adoptive South Carolina family has been appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. | Adoptive Couple v. Baby Girl (Petition for Cert.)

Hamilton, Andrew R., The New York Marriage Equality Act and the Strength of Its Religious Exceptions (2012). St. John’s Law Review, Journal of Catholic Legal Studies, Forthcoming. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2156988

LA Times: Gov. Jerry Brown has signed a bill requiring foster parents and other care givers to undergo training in “cultural competency and sensitivity” regarding lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth. The bill by Assemblyman Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco) has been controversial, with some conservative activists saying it will discourage adults from volunteering as foster parents.

TBO: Before the Brevard County couple split up, the genetic mother had donated an egg that was fertilized and implanted in the other woman, who gave birth in 2004. The couple separated two years later, and a trial court granted sole custody to the birth mother. An appellate court disagreed and said the women should share custody.

Turtle Bay and Beyond: In a previous post, our friend Grégor Puppinck informed about a case currently pending before the European Court of Human Rights in which the petitioners, a lesbian couple from Austria, claim to have been victims of “discrimination” because the Austrian legislation does not allow homosexual adoption. As Grégor explains in more detail, one of the two applicants has a child from a previous (heterosexual) relationship; the father of that child is still alive, pays alimonies, and has no intention to renounce to his paternal rights. What is deeply disturbing about this case is not that every now and then there are people who file such frivolous and manifestly absurd applications, but that the Court decides to hear them.

Turtle Bay and Beyond: On 3rd October 2012, the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights will hear a case of “homosexual adoption” concerning the impossibility for a woman to adopt the son of her female partner (X and others v. Austria, no. 19010/07). The two women consider it an infringement of their private life and discriminatory.

Harold Cassidy at Public Discourse: “The Surrogate Uterus: Baby M and the Bioethics Commission Report”

Governor Christie’s recent veto of a “gestational” surrogacy bill should prompt us to look at the legal history of surrogacy and the terrible injustices that it causes . . . Gestational surrogacy is now front and center for debate, not only in New Jersey, but across the nation. It demands attention. Motherhood itself is now on trial.

Detroit Free Press: A lawyer for a lesbian couple from Oakland County urged a federal judge today to allow them to jointly adopt three children despite a Michigan law that prevents unmarried couples from doing so.

AP: The Russian government officials arrived with a Moscow television crew in tow at the gates of a ranch for adopted children in remote northwestern Montana and demanded to be let inside.

AP: Russia’s parliament on Tuesday ratified a long-awaited agreement with the United States . . .

LifeNews: A recent article asked, “Why do more people choose abortion over adoption?” The author, Kristi Brown, commented . . .

Baptist Press: The North American Mission Board’s LoveLoud initiative and Together for Adoption will host a four-person breakfast panel discussion at the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting addressing Southern Baptist involvement in adoption and orphan care.

McClatchy: The N.C. Supreme Court in 2010 banned second parent adoptions for same-sex couples, the ACLU said. A second parent adoption occurs when one partner in an unmarried couple adopts the other partner’s biological or adoptive child. | ACLU press release and complaint: Fischer-Borne v. Smith

LifeSiteNews: The Colombian government has lost a battle in the country’s ultraliberal Constitutional Court to protect two Colombian children from adoption by an American homosexual activist.

Catholic Culture: Italian public opinion remains firmly opposed to same-sex marriage, a new survey shows.

Eugene Volokh reports at the Volokh Conspiracy: An interesting Virginia Supreme Court decision, Wyatt v. McDermott (Va. Apr. 20, 2012), recognizes this right. An excerpt (paragraph breaks added) . .

LifeSiteNews: “The Slovenian government has received a stern warning from a coalition of religious leaders against loosening the country’s laws to extend adoption rights to homosexual partners.”

Findlaw: Charlize Theron’s adoption as a single parent may not have been possible even as recently as the 1970s, when such adoptions were illegal in some states. But that’s changed, and now single-parent adoptions are allowed in every U.S. state, according to the University of Oregon’s Adoption History Project.

AP: The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that France did not discriminate against a lesbian who was refused the right to adopt. | Gas and Dubois v. France

NC Register: A bill that ensures that faith-based adoption agencies in the state of Virginia won’t be forced to place children in households led by same-sex couples has passed both houses of the General Assembly and is heading to the desk of Gov. Robert McDonnell, a supporter of the legislation, who is expected to sign it soon.

Life News: President Barack Obama is seeking to end federal funding for a pro-life program installed during the administration of President George W. Bush that helped save unborn babies potentially slated for destruction in fertility clinics.

News from The Associated Press: The Virginia state Senate passed legislation Thursday allowing private adoption agencies to deny placements that conflict with their religious or moral beliefs, including opposition to homosexuality.

Eugene Volkh at The Volokh Conspiracy: A question I never thought to ask, but Prof. Terry Turnipseed asks and answers it, in a Slate article about a recent case in which a man did adopt his girlfriend — apparently to shelter money from creditors, given the terms of a trust for his children . . .

Liberty Counsel: Today the American College of Pediatricians sent a letter to the Shawano School District Superintendent, Todd Carlson, cautioning him to not react adversely to 15-year-old student Brandon Wegner based on political pressure. Superintendent Carlson called Brandon ignorant for his views on homosexual adoption presented in an op-ed, point-counter-point article for a student-run newspaper.

LifeSiteNews.com: The petition was begun in response to a new initiative by French socialists, who are promising voters to institute homosexual “marriage” if they are chosen in the upcoming presidential elections.

WTOP.com: A battle over whether child-placement agencies should be allowed to discriminate against prospective parents and children based on their sexual orientation has moved to the General Assembly.

ChicagoTribune.com: Two women are suing the state of Michigan to try to overturn a state ban on adoption by unmarried couples.