Brian Lyman

Montgomery Advertiser

A Senate committee Wednesday approved legislation that would allow religious-based adoption agencies to refuse placement of children with LGBT individuals.

The Senate Health Committee approved the bill, sponsored by Rep. Rich Wingo, R-Tuscaloosa, on a 7 to 1 vote. Sen. Linda Coleman-Madison, D-Birmingham, cast the only no vote. The bill passed the Alabama House of Representatives March 16.

Wingo said religious-based organizations make up 30 percent of child placement agencies in the state.

“This bill is simply saying not to discriminate against faith-based child agencies, and not to force them to place children in homes that go against their religious beliefs,” he said.

Frederick Horton, vice president of engagement at Lifeline, a Birmingham-based adoption agency affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention, told the committee they were “not asking for state action to limit adoption.”

“We simply would want the privilege to function according to our closely held religious beliefs, and the values that come from those,” he said.

Critics of the legislation said it could land the state in legal trouble and prevent children from reaching caring families. Alan Jackson of Pike Road showed the committee a picture of his family, including his husband and his three-year-old nephew, who they have cared since the boy was a year old. The bill, Jackson said, could use a person’s sexuality to deny adoption rights.

“Is this legislation based out of love or fear?” he asked. “I would go as far to say that anything that keeps people apart . . . is not one based in love. It is from a much, much darker place.”

Tabitha Isner, a minister who has served as a foster parent, told the committee she “couldn’t see what’s to be gained from this.”

“No child placement agency in Alabama has ever been threatened with adverse action based on a decision it made for a religious reason, but here we are making a bill to protect them from that never-happened thing,” she said.

The bill moves on to the full Senate.

The Senate Health Committee Wednesday passed a host of bills that included a ban on assisted suicide; a health care provider conscience law and a constitutional amendment declaring Alabama a pro-life state. The bills could trigger lawsuits if they become law. Sen. Cam Ward, R-Alabaster, who supported the legislation, said in committee he would add amendments on the Senate floor requiring the state to use in-house counsel should Alabama find itself defending the laws in court.