South Dakota proactively defends adoption agencies

South Dakota enacted a law last week pre-emptively protecting the beliefs of faith-based adoption agencies and foster care providers. The measure, signed Friday by Gov. Dennis Daugaard, allows religious organizations to refuse to place children in certain households based on religious beliefs or moral convictions.

The beliefs must be contained in a written policy, statement of faith, or other document adhered to by the organization, according to the law.

The bill would come into play if South Dakota included sexual orientation in its nondiscrimination policies, as some states have done. In Massachusetts, Illinois, California, and Washington, D.C, such policies led to the states forcing religious child-placement agencies to either place children with same-sex couples or lose their licenses. Many chose to close down.

Critics hoped Daugaard, who was silent on the measure before Friday, would not sign the bill.

But on Friday, Daugaard said he worried that an agency acting in the best interest of a child could be subject to a lawsuit by denying placement to someone “who has a little bit of a leg up by virtue of being in a protected class.”

“If we can forestall that with this legislation,” Daugaard said, “then I’m willing to do that.”

Dauggard, a former director of a nonprofit that provided adoption and foster care services, said he also wanted to ensure the state was placing as many foster children and allowing for as many adoptions as possible.

“Whether it’s the state acting directly or through an agency, we need to do everything we can to encourage those agencies to stay in this business and help us find those placements,” Daugaard said.

Opponents called the law a “license to discriminate” that puts the interests of private organizations over children and individuals. They say the fastest way to get more children placed is to require religious agencies to open placements to single individuals and unmarried and gay couples. The American Civil Liberties Union’s South Dakota policy director, Libby Skarin, said the group was exploring legal challenges to the new law.

But supporters maintain the measure ensures faith-based child-placement organizations will not face state funding cuts, revoked licenses, or denied contracts, providing families and children with more options, not less.

“The law would ensure that the state of South Dakota may not coerce [agencies] to abandon their sincerely held religious beliefs or moral convictions in their placement decisions and the ongoing need for placement of children in safe, nurturing homes will be served,” said a statement by the South Dakota Family Policy Council. “Without this protection, they are faced with a possible decision of closing their doors or failing their mission. While this has already occurred in other states, it should never happen here in South Dakota.”

Michigan, North Dakota, and Virginia have also passed religious exemption bills for adoption and foster care organizations. Legislatures in Alabama, Texas, and Oklahoma are considering similar measures this year.