Signed by Governor Dennis Daugaard

Vote Smart's Synopsis:

Vote to pass a bill that authorizes faith based or religious child placement agencies to deny service that conflicts with their religious beliefs.

Highlights:

• Authorizes child-placement agencies the right to refuse any service that conflicts with their sincerely-held religious belief or moral conviction (Sec. 3).

• Prohibits any provision from allowing child-placement agencies to decline service on the basis of an individual’s race, ethnicity, or national origin (Sec. 7).

• Defines “child-placement agency” as an organization that receives and places children in foster homes or for adoption as a regular activity of that organization or that performs those services as an adjunct to other regular activities (Sec. 1).

• Prohibits the state from discriminating or taking any adverse action against the decision of child-placement agencies that decline to provide any service that conflicts with their sincerely-held religious belief or moral conviction of the agency (Sec. 4).

• Authorizes faith-based or religious child-placement agencies or agencies that seek to become child-placement agencies to be eligible to receive a license or participate in a state benefit program (Sec. 5).

Full Bill Text