{"id":331064,"date":"2025-05-12T10:55:39","date_gmt":"2025-05-12T15:55:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=331064"},"modified":"2025-05-11T22:52:33","modified_gmt":"2025-05-12T03:52:33","slug":"montana-bill-foster-care-adoptive-discrimination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/montana-bill-foster-care-adoptive-discrimination\/","title":{"rendered":"Montana gov signs bill prohibiting discrimination against adoptive and foster parents"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

Montana Governor Greg Gianforte signed a bill last week protecting families who want to foster or adopt from discrimination based on their religious beliefs.<\/p>\n

HB 655<\/a> outlaws<\/a> religious discrimination against adopting or fostering families and faith groups. It says the state\u00a0“may not take a discriminatory action against a person that advertises, provides, or facilitates adoption or foster care services wholly or partially on the basis that the person \u2026 has provided or declines to provide an adoption or foster care service or related service based on or in a manner consistent with the person’s sincerely held religious belief.”<\/p>\n

The bill arose after some states passed laws requiring foster and adoptive families to adhere to trainings or policies that may violate their religious beliefs. For example, in 2023, an Oregon woman sued the state<\/a> after it rejected her adoption application because she said she would be unwilling to use pronouns that don\u2019t align with a child\u2019s biological sex or allow a doctor to give the child hormone injections, arguing that such actions would violate her Christian faith.<\/p>\n

READ: Abortion almost destroyed her, until she found healing and forgiveness<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

According to testimony<\/a> from the Montana Family Foundation, several foster families in the state have been asked to take LGBTQ training that they felt violated their religious beliefs, prompting the organization to stand in favor of the bill.<\/p>\n

Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel Greg Chafuen praised the bill’s passage.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery child deserves a loving home that can provide them stability and opportunities to grow. The sad reality is that in\u00a0some\u00a0states, the government can discriminate against people of faith, allowing vulnerable children to suffer. Thankfully, Montana has taken critical steps to prioritize the well-being of kids by prohibiting state and local government officials from discriminating against adoption and foster care providers and parents simply because of their religious beliefs and moral convictions,” he said in a statement<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“By signing this law, Gov. Gianforte is ensuring that Montanan children benefit from as many adoption and foster care agencies as possible \u2013faith-based and non-faith-based.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Montana Governor Greg Gianforte signed a bill last week protecting families who want to foster or adopt from discrimination based on their religious beliefs. HB 655 outlaws religious discrimination against adopting or fostering families and faith groups. It says the state\u00a0“may not take a discriminatory action against a person that advertises, provides, or facilitates adoption […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":607,"featured_media":226271,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[3473,11],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nMontana gov signs bill prohibiting discrimination against adoptive and foster parents<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Montana bill HB 655 outlaws religious discrimination against prospective adopting or fostering families and faith groups.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/montana-bill-foster-care-adoptive-discrimination\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" 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