This is an update to the story regarding Senate Bill 149 being proposed in South Dakota that would allow for "religious protections" for adoption agencies. This bill would essentially allow adoption agencies in South Dakota to discriminate against those seeking to adopt who do not conform to what said agency deems as an acceptable family ...

"Senate Bill (SB) 149 would enshrine taxpayer-funded discrimination into state law by allowing state-funded adoption and foster care agencies to reject prospective LGBTQ adoptive or foster parents based on the agency’s purported religious beliefs."

"SB 149 would allow state-licensed and taxpayer-funded child-placing agencies to disregard the best interest of children, and turn away qualified [families] seeking to care for a child in need -- including LGBTQ couples, interfaith couples, single parents, married couples in which one prospective parent has previously been divorced, or other parents to whom the agency has a purported religious objection. The measure would even allow agencies to refuse to place foster children with members of their own extended families -- a practice often considered to be in the best interest of the child. A qualified, loving LGBTQ grandparent, for example, could be deemed unsuitable under the proposed law.  It would also allow agencies to refuse to provide appropriate medical and mental health care to LGBTQ children if the agency has a purported moral or religious objection to providing those services -- and an agency couldn’t lose its license or contract as a result of subjecting a child to abusive practices like so-called conversion therapy if it claimed such 'therapy' is compelled by religious belief."

"A South Dakota legislative panel has approved a bill that would protect religious adoption agencies or foster groups that won’t work with same-sex couples and single parents. The Senate Health and Human Services Committee passed the bill 5-2 Wednesday despite state and federal standards that bar agencies receiving state funds from denying prospective parents based on religion, sexual orientation, marital status, race or gender. The Argus Leader reports that bill supporters say the agencies shouldn’t have to abandon their religious views and should be allowed to only place children with traditional families whose views align with their own."

Related Articles:

• http://www.tekkadoption.com/BLOGS/AdoptionNews/tabid/381/ArticleID/3/South-Dakota-Bill-Could-Bar-Same-Sex-Single-Parent-Adoptions.aspx

Cited Sources:

• http://www.srnnews.com/south-dakota-panel-votes-allow-adoption-agencies-refuse-homosexual-couples
• https://www.hrc.org/blog/sd-lawmakers-advance-anti-lgbtq-license-to-discriminate-bill-for-adoption