The Foster Care Battle California Is Losing

Last Thursday, President Trump signed a new Executive Order called Fostering the Future for American Children and Families as part of First Lady Melania Trump’s new initiative to improve education and career opportunities for children in foster care.[1] The order states that the U.S. foster-care system must be improved, noting children often remain in care for years and that many youths exiting foster care face uncertain futures. It includes several mandates for the Department of Health and Human Services – updating data practices, modernizing technology, reporting states’ performance on key metrics, and developing partnerships with private companies or nonprofits to create opportunities for youth in or exiting foster care.[2] 

All of these are great steps. They show an increased priority in the administration for tangibly improving the foster-care system beyond simply acknowledging it is broken.

But the executive order includes one final section that I believe is the most important part of the initiative, and that section is titled “Maximizing Partnerships with Americans of Faith.” In it, the President states:

“The Secretary of Health and Human Services… shall take appropriate action to address State and local policies and practices that inappropriately prohibit participation in federally funded child-welfare programs by qualified individuals or organizations based upon their sincerely held religious beliefs or moral convictions.”[3]

What is this based on? What is President Trump referring to? Well, you guessed it – California.

Foster Care in California

Do you know the laws in place around foster care in our state? Do you know what is required to become a foster parent here – what trainings you must take, questions you must answer, and beliefs you must agree to? If not, you need to know. And that is exactly what we are exposing today. 

In recent years, California has become increasingly anti-Christian in its laws around the foster care system and foster care eligibility. This isn’t a surprise, given California is anti-Christian in seemingly every area, but it is still alarming for people of faith nonetheless. The turning point that put California’s extreme views on full display was the passage of Senate Bill 407 in 2023. The law “mandates that foster parents, irrespective of whether they have an LGBTQ-identified child in their care, must affirm a child’s chosen gender identity or sexual orientation.”[4] So, if you desire to be a foster parent in our state, then you must first agree, upfront, that you will affirm a child’s gender identity – even if that is against your deeply held religious beliefs, and regardless of if you are ever even in that situation as a foster parent. As of 2024, it was no longer good enough to say that you will love and respect a child within your care as a foster parent, even if you disagree with their choices and encourage them to pursue a different path – no, under California law you must affirm those choices to even be qualified to foster. If an applicant refuses to agree to such terms, whether on the basis of personal or religious beliefs, their application would then be rejected and they could not foster in the state of California.

Do you understand just how insane this is? Let me give you some statistics on foster and adoption. While weekly church attendance is under 40% nationwide, nearly two-thirds of foster parents come from churches. Polling reports that practicing Christians are twice as likely as other Americans to foster or adopt, and they’re disproportionately the ones taking in sibling groups, older youth, and children with special needs.[5] And if we want to get specific about the types of “practicing Christians” – Catholics are three times as likely, and evangelicals are five times as likely to adopt as the average adult. That is due in part to the fact that 77% of practicing Christians believe that they have a personal responsibility to adopt.[6]

But California lawmakers don’t seem to see Christians as a valuable resource for taking care of the children in foster care and providing them with safe and loving homes; instead, they have labeled Christians who disagree with the narrative about gender ideology a threat to children and are actively preventing them from engaging in the foster care system. This is wrong, especially when you think about what is at stake.

There are over 60,000 children in the foster care system in California, with Los Angeles County alone accounting for over 25,000 foster youth who have experienced abuse and neglect.[7] What is so frustrating about this isn’t just the injustice done to Christians who want to help these children – but the complete injustice done to the children in preventing people of faith from offering them safe and stable homes because of fringe beliefs on gender. The main concern for most of these children is their safety and provision – not what they believe about their gender. It is far more important to get them out of dangerous, abusive, and homeless situations, but California has prioritized the hypothetical scenario in which the foster child disagrees with their foster parent on gender ideology. This puts over 60,000 children at serious risk and puts further strain on a system that already doesn’t have enough help, enough volunteers, and enough support.

Changing Legal Precedent

But the good news is that the tides of political change are rising, and this will absolutely affect California’s laws on the topic. One major wave that came crashing down over laws like SB 407 was the case of Bates v. Pakseresht, decided by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit this past July. 

This was the case of Jessica Bates. Jessica is a Christian living in the state of Oregon, and sadly, in 2017, she became a widow and single mother to her five children.[8] Five years after losing her husband, Jessica felt a calling from God to pursue foster care, and so, in 2022, she began the process of applying to become an adoptive parent.[9] As she worked through the process, she was told by state officials that to qualify, adoptive parents “must be willing to promote gender ideology—including using incorrect pronouns for a child, taking a child to LGBTQ events like pride parades, and even facilitating the use of cross-sex hormones on a child.”[10] As a devout Christian, she did not feel comfortable with these requirements. She described to the state that she would agree to love and care for any child in her care regardless of their beliefs, but that her religious worldview teaches that we are made in God’s image and our identity is in Him, which stands directly opposed to the ideological views they were demanding. Oregon’s Department of Human Services (ODHS) “denied her application under a rule requiring prospective parents to ‘respect, accept, and support’ a child’s sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression.”[11] Jessica sued the Director of Oregon’s Department of Human Services on the grounds that this ruling was unconstitutional as it infringed on her first amendment right to freedom of religion.

Here's the good news: Jessica WON her case! The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the case was clear religious discrimination and ordered the Department to reconsider her application. They argued that the consideration was far too broad considering it only considered “hypothetical harm to hypothetical children.” Listen to this excerpt from the ruling:

“No one thinks that a state could exclude parents from adopting foster children based on those parents’ political views, race, or religious affiliations. Adoption is not a constitutional law dead zone. And a state’s general conception of the child’s best interest does not create a force field against the valid operation of other constitutional rights.”[12]

The court encouraged alternatives to a blanket rule on gender ideology, such as monitoring each case on an individual basis – which makes far more sense than just denying people the ability to foster or adopt when gender dysphoria or ideology might never be an issue in their placements or families. And since the ruling on Oregon was a carbon copy of the law here in California, this ruling absolutely has an effect on SB 407. Constitutional Attorney Dean Broyles, president of the National Center for Law and Policy, put it this way:

“The Ninth Circuit’s ruling in Bates v. Pakseresht confirms that the First Amendment’s free speech and religious free exercise clauses were violated by Oregon’s bigoted law excluding Christian parents from participating in adoptions because they can’t affirm LGBTQ+ identities. This signals the death knell for California’s SB 407, a similar statute banning religious families from bringing needy children in need into their loving homes through the foster care system. This transparent and blatant anti-Christian bigotry and hostility must go the way of the dodo. Freedom will prevail.”[13]

Certain groups like California Family Council or the Pacific Justice Institute are working to get a review of SB 407 for the purposes of its repeal in line with court precedent. And now, with President Trump’s executive order for Secretary Kennedy to address state policies like SB 407 and integrate more faith-based organizations into partnerships with the foster care system, there should be federal backing for such a review. Which is incredibly exciting for hopeful foster parents in the state of California, and for the children who will be placed with them.

Why This Matters

There are many reasons why this matters but let me highlight just three.

1. Religious liberty matters for EVERYONE.

Regardless of your beliefs or whether you ever foster a child, religious freedom is a fundamental right in America, and no state should have the ability to discriminate against you for your personal convictions and beliefs. When rights are dismantled for one group, they will be dismantled for another. This affects you – whether out of concern for freedom or out of pure self-interest.

2. The Bible commands us to care for the orphan.

That can look differently for different people – it doesn’t have to mean fostering in your own family – but foster care IS obviously one major way to fulfill that calling. Christians foster and adopt at significantly higher rates than the general population. Removing the most devoted and willing demographic from foster care is foolish and dangerous. The state should partner with faith-based families, not push them away.

3. If the state can redefine “good parenting” for foster families, they can redefine it for YOUR family.

If your religious beliefs make you “dangerous” to a foster child, why wouldn’t they make you dangerous to your own child? If it’s abuse for fostered children, then why isn’t it abuse for all children?

California already tried to expand this logic through Assembly Bill 957, which would have required courts to factor parental gender-affirmation into custody decisions as part of the child’s “health, safety, and welfare.”[14] Even though the Governor vetoed it, it’s already happening in our state.

In 2020, a California Superior Court Judge completely revoked all parental rights from a father who was not even deeply religious, but who believed that his 16-year-old son was not a girl as he claimed to be, and that medical transition was too risky and should be delayed or avoided. He had no right to see his son, no right to talk to him, no right to demand that his son attend therapy with him, and no right to stop a medical transition already scheduled at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital.[15] This should terrify all of us, it certainly terrifies me. The thought that the state can strip away your parental rights because you don’t affirm their view of gender as it relates to your minor child is dystopian and wicked. We should never give an inch to a state that is ideologically opposed to all the Bible calls good.

The Main Point

Your state can pass laws that are downright evil and that have the potential to destroy your family and your life if we are not paying attention.

Bills like SB 407 passed because we let them. We let them by refusing to talk about politics. We let them by calling everything “too controversial.” We let them by checking out of the political process. We let them by saying nothing.

Laws don’t appear out of thin air. They’re written by real people and signed by real leaders who rely on public disengagement to push radical ideas through without resistance. California didn’t get here overnight. It got here because Christians slowly backed away from the public square.

But Scripture never commands silence in the face of injustice – especially toward children. It never tells us to protect our comfort while children lose families and parents lose rights. It never tells us to be passive while the vulnerable are harmed.

If the church won’t speak up for truth, for families, and for freedom, then who will?

A Final Encouragement

This is why politics matters, and this is why we can never give up, no matter how bleak the outlook. If you had asked me two years ago whether foster-care requirements in California would ever shift, I would have said no. Our state felt too far gone, too extreme, and too ignored by the rest of the country.

But look where we are now – with an executive order, a presidential administration, and a judiciary putting pressure on policies we once thought were untouchable. This should wake us up! Politics are not static. Change can come from places we never expected. What seems impossible today can start unraveling tomorrow.

So let this be a reminder: nothing is beyond redemption, not even California. The tide can turn, but only if we keep pressing forward.

Take Action Today! Write to your Senator using my letter template below:

References:

[1] The Associated Press and ABC News. “Melania Trump Launches New ‘Fostering the Future’ Effort to Support Foster Youth With Jobs, School.” ABC News, November 13, 2025. https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/melania-trump-launches-new-fostering-future-effort-support-127501277.

[2] The White House, “Fostering the Future for American Children and Families,” November 14, 2025, https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/11/fostering-the-future-for-american-children-and-families/.

[3] Ibid.

[4] California Family Council. “Faith Under Fire: The Purge of Christian Foster Parents in California,” December 16, 2024. https://www.californiafamily.org/2024/12/faith-under-fire-the-purge-of-christian-foster-parents-in-california/.

[5] Bipartisan Policy Center. “New BPC/Harris Polling Data on Religion and Child Welfare,” February 8, 2025. https://bipartisanpolicy.org/article/new-bpc-harris-polling-data-on-religion-and-child-welfare/#:~:text=Barna%20Research%20found%20that%20practicing,and%20children%20with%20special%20needs.

[6] Barna Group. “Three Trends on Faith, Work and Calling - Barna Group,” November 22, 2023. https://www.barna.com/research/three-trends-on-faith-work-and-calling/.

[7] Children’s Law Center of California. “Foster Care Facts - Children's Law Center of California,” July 5, 2023. https://www.clccal.org/resources/foster-care-facts/.

[8] Caldwell, Pat. “New Widow With 5 Kids Finds Faith Is Her Rock After Horrific Crash.” Oregonlive, April 20, 2017. https://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-northwest-news/2017/04/tony_montwheeler_1.html.

[9] Alliance Defending Freedom. “Jessica Bates’ Story,” November 7, 2025. https://adflegal.org/article/jessica-bates-story/.

[10] Ibid.

[11] California Family Council. “Court to Oregon (& CA): You Can’t Bar Christians From Adopting and Fostering for Believing in Biology.” California Family Council, July 28, 2025. https://www.californiafamily.org/2025/07/court-to-oregon-ca-you-cant-bar-christians-from-adopting-and-fostering-for-believing-in-biology/.

[12] Ibid.

[13] Ibid.

[14] Hamilton, Katherine. “CA Bill: Non-Affirmation of Child’s ‘Gender Identity’ Against Child’s ‘Best Interests’ in Custody Disputes.” Breitbart, June 10, 2023. https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2023/06/10/california-bill-treats-non-affirmation-of-a-childs-gender-identity-as-against-the-childs-best-interests-in-custody-disputes/.

[15] Shrier, Abigail. “Child Custody’s Gender Gauntlet.” City Journal, March 23, 2023. https://www.city-journal.org/article/child-custodys-gender-gauntlet.