Lawmakers in Texas are considering a bill this week that would potentially make adoption more difficult for some people and encourage discrimination, according to reports. The bill aims at tightening the laws regarding foster parents and makes adoption more difficult.
Reports also say that the bill will definitely affect the welfare services that are a part of the state of Texas. Some people have expressed concerns regarding the law under consideration by advocates and the child welfare agencies. The bill has also been criticized heavily by many for being biased against the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community and for promoting inequality.
A social worker commented on the bill, stating that the objective seems to be to ensure that the child welfare agencies have the freedom to choose the kind of parents who they want to consider when adoption or fostering of children is on the table. That essentially means that the agencies may now choose to reject same-sex couples who want to adopt or express bias against some children based on religious or other beliefs.
According to reports, the bill does not have the best interest of the children who are to be adopted or put in foster care at the top of the priority list. Essentially, the focus of the concerned bill is entirely on the service providers and what they ought to do or not do.
The fear of some social workers is that there is always a large number of couples who are willing to adopt; however, the bill will create a challenging situation, which will only be aggravated by such laws. The bills will reject willing couples, and, in the process, children who could have had the stability and the loving care of a family will be negatively impacted.
Source: KXAN.com, “Concern over bill that could make it harder to adopt a child,” Amanda Brandeis, April 14, 2015