November is National Adoption Month, and as believers and Americans who care about families, we have the opportunity this month to help. Please take a moment to learn what’s going on and then lend your voice to help children awaiting adoption!

The answer probably seems obvious if we asked: When it comes to policies on adoption, should kids or politics come first? With nearly 125,000 children in the United States awaiting adoption and the average adoption wait time for a child in foster care at 31 months, of course the answer is that children should come first.

But, sadly, for many years the policy of our federal government put politics over children. It all started when the Obama Administration issued a last-minute rule saying that even faith-based entities working with the government to help children find forever homes had to comply with the Administration’s sexual agenda. In other words, the Obama Administration said that faith-based entities had to agree with the Administration on LGBT issues (even though LGBT classifications aren’t part of federal law) or—in many cases—shut down their ministry.

Faith-based ministries often specialize in placing hard-to-place children in forever homes—older children, special-needs children, and more. So, sadly, already-vulnerable children are those who suffer most when politics gets in the way of good adoption policy.

Thankfully, the Trump Administration is now prioritizing adoption—and working to keep kids first. His Health and Human Services Department (HHS) just issued a proposed new rule that protects faith-based adoption ministries—ensuring they will not be forced to choose between their faith and their service to their community’s children. This means that more agencies will be able to help children find a home—which makes the most sense when it comes to adoption policy.

Thousands of you have already thanked President Trump for prioritizing children and adoption in this way! Thank you so much!

But, more help is needed. The next step to ensuring that President Trump’s proposed rule becomes official adoption policy is called a “public comment period.” This means that the HHS Department will collect comments from the general public about whether or not to finalize the rule. You can be sure that they will hear from activists and others who want to keep the Obama-era policy that puts politics over children.

So, please join us in submitting as many comments as possible from believers, churches, families, and those who simply care about putting children first in support of President Trump’s proposed new rule!

Leaving a comment is very simple. Just click here, complete the simple form (comment and name) and click “Continue”. On the following page, just confirm and submit.

To make it even easier, here are some talking points to use when you write them—even a short paragraph is a huge help!

• I’m thankful that the Trump Administration is prioritizing adoption and making clear that children come first in his Administration’s adoption policy.
  
  
• I agree that faith-based agencies should be free to serve children, birth moms, and adoptive families according to their beliefs, and shouldn’t be punished by the government because of their faith.
  
  
• With so many children awaiting adoption, more adoption agencies serving these children (and giving birthmothers more options) is a very good thing!
  
  
• I fully support the proposed new rule RIN 0991-AC16.

Please submit your comments in support of the proposed rule before December starts so that we can all celebrate Adoption Month together!

For Keeping Kids First,

Autumn Leva, Esq.
Vice President for Strategy