A single mother of five in southeast Oregon said she felt a strong urge to pursue adoption after listening to a Christian broadcast about a man who had adopted a child from foster care.
But, Jessica Bates said her Christian faith and her beliefs about gender identify have prevented her from adopting in the state. In response, Bates and Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) filed a lawsuit Monday against leaders of Oregon’s Department of Human Services (ODHS) to challenge what they believe to be an illegal infringement of her constitutional First Amendment rights to free speech and the free exercise of religion.
Bates' lawyers argue that the state is punishing her for her religious views after she refused to comply with a policy that compels her to speak words in violation of her faith and in turn, deprive her of equal protection under the law.
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"The government [in Oregon] is basically putting it to a choice: abandon your religious beliefs and violate your conscience or forgo even the possibility of ever adopting a child," Bates' attorney, Johannes Widmalm-Delphonse and legal counsel at ADF, told Fox News Digital. "For example, preferred pronouns, they carry a message. That message goes against Jessica's faith and she doesn't want to use her words to promote that, so we believe that that violates the First Amendment."
"We want to open the door for not just Jessica, but for everyone in the state of Oregon and hopefully also set a precedent for the millions of Americans who share her beliefs and shouldn't be unjustly excluded from adoption or foster care programs," he added.
In Oregon, prospective parents are required to agree and abide by the state’s gender ideology policy to "respect, accept, and support" the sexual orientation and/or gender identity of any child that could be placed in their home before they family can adopt or foster children. Under the state guidance, prospective adoptive or foster parents are obligated to agree to use a child’s preferred pronouns, attend Pride parades or facilitate access to medical interventions like puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones.
"It just brought to life Oregon's training and how it really does discriminate against families with traditional values, honestly, which is kind of shocking that that's really the state that it's in," Bates told Fox News Digital. "That's what I'm hoping to bring to light and hoping that they can amend their policies to truly make them equitable, to make it fair for everybody."
Bates believes that a person cannot choose his or her gender and does not believe in affirming that a person can identify as a gender that is not aligned with their biological sex. In response, state officials denied Bates’s adoption application because of her Christian faith values.
"I know that they try to match up families [and] kids with … families of a similar faith," she said. "They try to really match up children with parents to make it successful, but when you can't even be in the pool to be chosen to adopt or to foster, it's like you just don't even get a chance."
Bates told the ODHS during her application process that she is unwilling to affirm or take actions that violate her Christian faith. In response, ODHS told her that she could either abandon her religious convictions or give up the prospect of adopting a child. She refused and ODHS rejected her application for failing to "meet the adoption home standards."
In Oregon, there are more than 8,000 kids living in the foster care system with around 200 waiting to be adopted, according to the state's website.
"It makes it feel like the state of Oregon is putting their ideology and their beliefs … above the welfare of really wanting to get these kids into loving families," she said. "It feels like they're pushing that and that's the number one priority instead of trying to open up the doors to get these kids out of the system."
ADF argues that ODHS’s policy serves as an "ideological litmus test" where people with secular or "progressive" views on sexual orientation and gender identity are able to participate in child welfare programs, while people of faith are disqualified based on their religious views.
"To say that religious people of diverse faith who share Jessica's beliefs are categorically unfit to care for children, it doesn't it doesn't help anyone, which is why we filed this lawsuit," Widmalm-Delphonse said.
"Jessica Bates is sincere in her faith and desire to provide children a safe and stable home, and she will gladly love and accept any child," he said. "But because Jessica won’t adopt the State’s views on sex and our human nature, she can’t adopt."
Oregon states that it accommodates caregivers with diverse cultural and religious beliefs on other topics, but ADF points out that it punishes individuals like Jessica who have views in opposition to the state of Oregon as they relate to gender identity.
"Oregon allows people of all different views to apply and tries to match them with kids who share their beliefs," Widmalm-Delphonse said. "The fact that Oregon treats Jessica differently shows this is all about religious discrimination."
Widmalm-Delphonse said it is unclear how long Oregon's adoption policy regarding gender identity has been in place, but he said other people have reached out to ADF to let them know they have dealt with similar experiences of having been discriminated against because of their traditional beliefs and values.
He said it is not a problem unique to Oregon either, citing cases across the country where prospective parents were denied adoption or foster opportunities over their religious beliefs.
"The issue is bigger than just Jessica," he said. "Ultimately, when the government says that entire excluding entire faith groups from serving alongside others to help children, it's the children in need who suffer, obviously."
Bates said she hopes her lawsuit can help make the system truly fair and inclusive for not only herself, but for other prospective parents who hold similar views.
"Sometimes things don't go like you planned or you hope, maybe there's a bigger purpose in it that this needed to be addressed because it is just so unfair and so not good for all these children who need loving families to take them in," she said. "I'm hoping to be able to adopt in the future and hoping that they correct these policies to make them truly fair and inclusive."
