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Arizona passes bill giving married couples adoption priority

The Arizona House of Representatives passed an adoption bill yesterday that gives priority to placing children with married couples over single individuals, reports Peter J. Smith, LifeSiteNews.com.

The House approved HB 2148, which gives married couples "primary consideration" in adoption placement, by a 35-22 vote. The measure now heads to the Senate for consideration.

However, single persons would still be able to adopt only if a qualified married couple for the child cannot be found or under a limited set of circumstances, such as the single person being a legal relative, or already having a "meaningful and healthy" relationship with the child.

The law requires Arizona courts to make “specific written findings regarding the child’s best interests” in every adoption proceeding.

“Given a level playing field for kids who are in state custody here in Arizona, the best possible situation for them is to be adopted by a mom and a dad, a husband and a wife," the bill’s sponsor, Republican Rep. Warde Nichols, told CitizenLink.

Homosexual activists such as Equality Arizona opposed the bill, calling it “discrimination” that would discourage qualified individuals from adopting, because they were not married. Other homosexual activists cut to the chase and accused the bill of being an underhanded ploy to prevent homosexual adoption.

But Nichols, one of the original sponsors of the state’s ban on same-sex “marriage,” told The Arizona Republic that he rejected that assertion. "If it was my goal to keep homosexuals from adopting, I would have put it in the bill," he said.

Instead, the newspaper reports, Republican Sen. Jack Harper has submitted a bill banning adoption to homosexuals in the state Senate. That bill has yet to be given a hearing.

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TAGS: USA Arizona House of Representatives adoption bill adoption priority married couples homosexual adoption same-sex “marriage”

[02/26/2010]

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