Philadelphia, Pa., Apr 23, 2019 / 13:23 pm
After a yearlong legal struggle, a federal appeals court has ruled that city contractors in Philadelphia must place foster children with same-sex couples, a ruling that threatens the future of the local Catholic archdiocese's foster placement program.
"We're disappointed that the court decided to let the city place politics above the needs of kids and the rights of parents, but we will continue this fight," said Lori Windham, senior counsel at the legal group Becket, which is representing the Archdiocese of Philadelphia's Catholic Social Services.
Becket noted that despite being hundreds of beds short of what is necessary to serve the children in the foster care system, the City of Philadelphia failed to renew the Catholic foster care agency's contract.
"The need to find those children homes is so dire that earlier this year the city put out an urgent call for 300 new families to become foster parents," the institute wrote in an April 22 release.