Oregon settles with Christian mother denied foster care adoption over gender identity beliefs
A widowed Oregon mother of five who hoped to give a home to a child in foster care and says she was shut out of the process after telling state officials her Christian beliefs prevented her from affirming a child’s gender transition has reached a settlement with the state allowing her to continue pursuing adoption.
Jessica Bates told Fox News Digital in an interview Wednesday that she completed Oregon’s foster care training after deciding to pursue adoption but raised what she described as conflicts of conscience with requirements concerning gender identity and the care of children who identify as LGBTQ+.
"In the training, the state wanted me to be willing to put pride flags around the house or if a child should come into my care that didn't identify as binary or whatnot, then I would need to affirm their identity, use their preferred pronouns, support this behavior even if it conflicted with my faith and what I hold to be true," Bates said.
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"When I was on the phone call with them a few months later, they basically kind of set up the litmus test that, ‘OK, well, what if we place a child in your care who wants to transition from one sex to the other, and we want — we need you to take this child to hormone injection appointments. Would you be willing to do that?’" Bates said they asked.
"And that was kind of the straw that broke the camel's back, because I absolutely would not be willing to do that."
Bates began the process to become certified to adopt in March 2022 from Oregon’s foster care system, but in September 2022 she was denied her application by Oregon due to her religious beliefs, according to Alliance Defending Freedom, which has represented Bates.
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Bates said she told officials that gender affirmation for a child who believes he or she is a different gender than what they were born with is "child abuse," and society has yet to learn the full effects of gender transition hormones.
"It was hard being told you can't adopt or help at all when you know that there were literally like a few thousand kids out there in the foster care system," Bates said. "And just knowing, nope, you can't help, and you're excluded was really hard.
"And, you've probably heard, I am a widow," she added. "My husband was killed in 2017 in a head-on collision. That's kind of a long story in itself, but my five kids and I know what it is to have grief and to lose someone that you love.
"And just the idea that there's these kids out here, at the same time, while I'm seeing my kids kind of go through life without their dad. And to know there's kids out there that don't have a parent, either want mom or dad that's able to invest in them and love them."
In March 2023, ADF filed a federal complaint on her behalf, and in December 2023, following a federal district court ruling against Bates, ADF appealed her case to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, asking the court to allow her to access Oregon’s adoption system without discrimination while her lawsuit continues.
In July 2025, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit ruled that Bates can start the process of adopting siblings from foster care without violating her religious beliefs about human sexuality while her lawsuit against state officials progresses.
"This settlement will allow me to continue in the process of looking to foster, to adopt," Bates said. "I plan to do that even though my family life has changed a lot in the last four years. I became a grandmother. My oldest son's married, and he's actually — they're living with me, just because cost of living and everything is so high right now, but I would like to continue the process and this case allows me to do that."
Fox News Digital reached out to the Oregon Department of Human Services for comment but did not immediately receive a response.