A Jewish couple was rejected as foster parents because of their religion. This is the future Project 2025 envisions

Source: The Guardian

A Jewish couple was rejected as foster parents because of their religion. This is the future Project 2025 envisions

State law let the agency refuse to work with the Rutan-Rams – which would be more common with the conservative plan were implemented

Rebecca McCray
Wed 24 Jul 2024 12.00 BST

In 2021, Liz and Gabe Rutan-Ram decided to take the next step toward growing their family and applied to foster a child. After identifying a three-year-old in Florida who they hoped to ultimately adopt, the Rutan-Rams turned back to their home state of Tennessee to start training to become foster parents.

But their plans quickly fell apart when the Christian state-funded foster care placement agency informed them by email that they “only provide adoption services to prospective adoptive families that share our belief system”. The Rutan-Rams, who are Jewish, were out of luck.

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The Rutan-Rams sued the Tennessee department of children’s services, arguing that a state law permitting private agencies to refuse to work with prospective parents on religious grounds violates the Tennessee constitution’s equal protection and religious freedom guarantees. The case will soon go to trial.

The predicament facing the Rutan-Rams could become more common under a second Trump administration. Project 2025, a 900-plus page blueprint for the next Republican administration and the policy brainchild of the conservative Heritage Foundation, contains an explicitly sympathetic view toward “faith-based adoption agencies” like the one that rejected the Rutan-Rams, who are “under threat from lawsuits” because of the agencies’ religious beliefs.

Project 2025’s Adoption Reform section ...

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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jul/24/project-2025-adoption-fostering