Virginia Bill Could Make Adoption More Difficult For Gay Parents

Virginia Governor, Bob McDonnell, is expected to sign into law a bill that would allow state-funded private child-placement agencies to deny services based on moral and religious beliefs. This right of child-placement agencies to avoid services would be located in a ‘conscience clause’ that the bill would add to the state’s adoption laws. Additionally, the bill would prohibit the state from denying grants, contracts, or license renewals to any agency that exercises its right of refusal. The Senate approved the bill 22-17 last month.

State legislators and gay and lesbian residents and advocates have criticized the bill, describing it as sanctioning legal discrimination. Many predict that the new law would negatively affect the ability of propective gay parents to adopt in the state and anticipate that the bill could create social consequences by turning away other-wise qualified parents from the adoption process.

See For Prospective Gay Parents, Adoption Odds About to Get Worse, Claredon-Courthouse-Rosslyn Patch, Mar. 8, 2012. 

Special thanks to David S. Luber (Attorney at law, Florida Probate Attorney Wills and Estates Law Firm) for bringing this article to my attention.