An Oregon mother is suing the state for denying her adoption application over her religious stance on gender ideology.
Jessica Bates, a Christian mother of five, filed a federal complaint against the Oregon Department of Human Services after the department denied her adoption application. Bates claims she was denied because her stance against sex-change treatments for children conflicted with state law demanding foster parents respect the "gender expression" of adopted children, Fox News reported.
Asked by a state official if she would support giving sex-change hormones to a child, Bates said she responded that she considers it child abuse. She allegedly later received a letter of denial, informing her that her beliefs violated Oregon state law on foster adoptions.
"I have no problem loving them and accepting them as they are, but I would not encourage them in this behavior. I believe God gives us our gender/sex, and it’s not something we get to choose," Bates wrote to the official.
"Oregon is putting its political agenda above the needs of countless children who would be happy to grow up in a loving, Christian home like Jessica’s," Bates’s legal counsel said.
The complaint comes amid heated debates across the nation over cross-sex medical procedures for children. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.) recently denied Libs of TikTok creator Chaya Raichik’s claim that the Boston Children’s Hospital performed hysterectomies on minors, attributing the "lie" to "prominent far-right influences."
Last month, Department of Health and Human Services official Rachel Levine celebrated "gender affirming care" for minors and claimed to be "optimistic" that it will be normalized.
States across the country have taken measures to ban or limit sex-change treatments for minors. Last month, Arkansas governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R.) enacted a law to allow patients who received gender treatments as a minor to sue their doctors up to 15 years after turning 18.
Last week, West Virginia enacted a total ban on gender treatments for minors.
The Oregon Department of Human Services did not return a request for comment.