Christian Mom Defeats Oregon Bid to Stop Her From Adopting
A Christian mom in Oregon has won her battle against a liberal state to adopt children.
Oregon child-welfare officials have agreed to let a Christian widow seek a license to adopt children from foster care without violating her religious beliefs, ending a three-year fight over a state rule that barred her because she would not promote gender ideology on the kids.
Jessica Bates, a widowed mother of five, sued the Oregon Department of Human Services in April 2023 after the agency rejected her application. Officials deemed her ineligible to adopt any child — even infants or children who share her religious beliefs — because she said she would not use inaccurate pronouns, take children to pride parades, or take a hypothetical 9-year-old to receive puberty blockers or hormone shots.
Under an agreed court order announced Monday, Bates may reapply for her license and need not promote gender ideology to a vulnerable child. Oregon also agreed that Bates, as the prevailing party, is entitled to attorneys’ fees and costs, to be decided later.
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“As a widowed mom of five, I was surprised to feel God nudging me to adopt. I never dreamt it would lead to a years-long lawsuit when Oregon excluded me just because of my religious convictions about gender,” Bates said. “I am grateful for ADF picking up my case, advocating for my and every American’s rights, and helping ensure many great homes can remain candidates to help the children in foster care.”
Alliance Defending Freedom represented Bates.
ADF Senior Counsel Johannes Widmalm-Delphonse told LifeNews the settlement protects constitutional rights and children’s interests.
“Every child deserves a loving home, and children suffer when the government excludes people of faith from foster care because of the state’s own ideological crusade,” he said. “Oregon officials turned Jessica away just because of her common-sense belief that parents should help children become comfortable with who they are instead of pushing them down a path of confusion and medicalization. We believe this settlement is a win-win that protects constitutional rights and puts children’s interests first.”
The agreement follows a July 24, 2025, ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that Bates was likely to succeed on her First Amendment free-speech and religious-liberty claims.
Oregon later agreed to a preliminary injunction that allowed her to restart the application process. The state has now agreed to make that injunction permanent.
The appeals court said adoption is not beyond the Constitution.
“No one thinks, for example, that a state could exclude parents from adopting foster children based on those parents’ political views, race, or religious affiliations,” the court wrote. “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.”
Oregon’s rule required prospective adoptive parents to “respect, accept, and support” a child’s sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression. Bates told officials she would happily love and accept any child placed with her. Officials still rejected her.
ADF Senior Counsel Jonathan Scruggs said the state’s approach treated faithful Christian caregivers as unfit and left children waiting.
“Because caregivers like Jessica cannot promote Oregon’s dangerous gender ideology to young kids and take them to events like pride parades, the state considers them to be unfit parents. That is false and incredibly dangerous, needlessly depriving kids of opportunities to find a loving home,” Scruggs said after the 9th Circuit ruling. “The 9th Circuit was right to remind Oregon that the foster and adoption system is supposed to serve the best interests of children, not the state’s ideological crusade.”
