By Grazie Pozo Christie
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is suingMichigan’s Department of Health and Human Services in an attempt to end the highly successful public-private partnership between the state and St. Vincent’s Catholic Charities. St. Vincent’s specializes in finding adoptive and foster homes for sibling groups and older children who are often harder to place. Now, they’ve been targeted by the ACLU because they place their precious charges only in homes with a married mother and father, the familial structure they believe is best for nurturing traumatized children.
The ACLU is representing a same-sex couple who could have adopted through any number of agencies which do not require prospective parents to be a married mother and father. Targeting St. Vincent’s is perhaps part of a strategic challenge to a Michigan law passed three years ago that specifically allows faith-based adoption agencies to place children only in families with a married mother and father. The impetus for passing this law was what had happened in Massachusetts: After the state made it illegal to only place children with traditionally married couples, Catholic adoption services across the state closed their doors.
