WASHINGTON (OSV News) — The Department of Health and Human Services March 6 proposed scrapping a Biden administration policy requiring foster homes to affirm a child’s gender transition or sexual orientation.
HHS posted a “Notice of Proposed Rulemaking” in the Federal Register that would rescind the Biden administration rule, which was finalized in 2024.
Biden-era rule’s 3 conditions for placements
That policy that said in order to be considered a “Designated Placement” for an LGBTQ+ child, the placement (provider) must satisfy three conditions: commit to “establishing an environment that supports the child’s LGBTQ+ status or identity”; undergo training for “appropriate knowledge and skills to provide for the needs of the child related to the child’s self-identified sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression”; and commit to “facilitate the child’s access to age- or developmentally appropriate resources, services, and activities that support their health and well-being.”
However, the Biden administration policy was later blocked by a federal judge who found the policy violated what is known as the Major Questions Doctrine, a legal premise that holds that significant economic or political matters should be left to Congress, not courts.
Supporters, critics of existing rule
Proponents of the policy have argued it protects LGBTQ+ youth from potentially unsafe foster homes. According to the Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ+ advocacy group, LGBTQ+ youth are “over-represented” in the foster care system, meaning the percentage of youth in foster care who identify as LGBTQ+ is larger than the percentage of LGBTQ+ youth in the general youth population.
Critics of the policy said it discriminated against potential foster parents over religious beliefs. For example, in 2023, a Massachusetts couple alleged the commonwealth denied them the opportunity to foster or adopt children into their family due to their religious beliefs about marriage, sexuality and gender.
Sincerely held religious beliefs
In February, Gov. Mike Braun, R-Ind., signed House Bill 1389, legislation seeking to prevent the rejection of prospective foster parents due to sincerely held religious beliefs.
Data from the Bipartisan Policy Center found that people for whom religion plays a major role in life are nearly 50% more likely than those with minimal religious commitments to be “familiar with the child welfare system.” “Research consistently finds religious faith and practice to be highly connected to giving and service of all kinds, including child welfare,” the center said.
The proposed HHS rule is listed for public comment until April 6.
Letters to all 50 state governments
A few days before the proposed regulation was issued, ??the Administration for Children and Families at HHS said it sent letters to all 50 state governments “reminding them that children may not be removed from their homes solely because parents decline to support a child’s self-identification as the opposite sex.”
“Parents have the right to raise their children according to their sincerely held religious beliefs and moral convictions,” ACF Assistant Secretary Alex J. Adams said in a March 3 statement. “When states overstep their bounds, ACF will take action to deter inappropriate policies that drive unnecessary interactions with child welfare systems. This is one such example.”
The U.S. bishops in November approved an updated version of “Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services,” their guiding document on Catholic health care, with substantial revisions that include explicit prohibitions against gender transition surgeries.
Bishops’ updated Ethical Directives
The updated ERDs incorporated guidance on health care policy and practices released in March 2023 by the USCCB’s Committee on Doctrine. It stated the church’s opposition to interventions that “involve the use of surgical or chemical techniques that aim to exchange the sex characteristics of a patient’s body for those of the opposite sex or for simulations thereof.”
“Any technological intervention that does not accord with the fundamental order of the human person as a unity of body and soul, including the sexual difference inscribed in the body, ultimately does not help but, rather, harms the human person,” the document states.
Kate Scanlon is a national reporter for OSV News covering Washington. Follow her on X @kgscanlon.
