Next FOT: Bill that would protect Christian adoption and foster care agencies from liberal 'anti-discrimination' laws

Hillary Byrnes, Assistant General
Counsel for USCCB

Over the years we’ve reported on state and local laws that have prevented Catholic Charities and other organizations from providing adoption and foster care services because of legal requirements to place children in households headed by two persons of the same sex. Responding to these problems, Rep. Mike Kelly, R-PA, has introduced the Child Welfare Provider Inclusion Act of 2017. It would protect the religious liberties of child welfare service providers, including adoption and foster care agencies.

The Act would prohibit the federal government and any state that receives certain federal funding from discriminating against service providers on the basis that they provide child welfare services in a manner consistent with their sincerely held religious beliefs or moral convictions. The bill is opposed by several LBGT and liberal civil rights organizations but is supported by the religious community, including the U. S. Conference ofCatholic Bishops (USCCB).

Joining the discussion Tuesday morning will be Hillary Byrnes, Assistant General Counsel for the USCCB and now serves as lead staff to the Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty, which the U.S. bishops established in 2011 to address growing concerns over the erosion of freedom of religion in America. Hillary also focuses on legal issues affecting Catholic education in the U.S.

She graduated from the University of Notre Dame Law School, cum laude, where she was an Article Editor of the Notre Dame Journal of Law, Ethics & Public Policy. She also served on Notre Dame Law School’s Jessup International Law Moot Court Team, which competed in Aberdeen, Scotland. Hillary is a member of the bar of New York, the District of Columbia, and has been admitted to practice before several federal trial and appellate courts, including the United States Supreme Court.

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