HHS Secretary: Biden admin blocked religious families from foster parenting

(Liberty Counsel) Last week, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. testified to Congress that the Biden administration blocked Christian couples from fostering children.  

Secretary Kennedy testified that Biden officials imposed a 2024 HHS rule that required prospective foster parents to support LGBTQ identities as a condition for federal funding for foster care programs nationwide. Secretary Kennedy noted the policy “dramatically constricted the pool of available parents” for children in need of good homes. His testimony was part of the HHS’ efforts to roll back these restrictions. 

“President Trump and First Lady Trump’s vision for foster care is one family for every one child,” stated Secretary Kennedy. “Currently, there are two children for every available foster family because the Biden Administration was excluding an entire class of foster families due to their religious beliefs. This is unacceptable, and we are changing that.”

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President Trump and First Lady Trump's vision for foster care is one family for every one child. Currently, there are two children for every available foster family because the Biden Administration was excluding an entire class of foster families due to their religious beliefs. Show more

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2:53 PM · Apr 16, 2026

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The 2024 rule required foster parents to meet three conditions to qualify as a “designated placement” for fostering LGBTQ+ children. These conditions included “establishing an environment that supports the child’s LGBTQ+ status or identity,” receiving training to get the “appropriate knowledge and skills to provide for the needs of the child related to the child’s self-identified sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression,” and committing to “facilitate the child’s access to age- or developmentally appropriate resources, services, and activities that support their health and well-being.”

In June 2025, a federal judge halted the rule and determined it “likely exceeded the scope of HHS’ authority” under the Major Questions Doctrine, which leaves rewriting law on significant political matters to Congress and not the courts.

“The Court will not permit HHS’s unlawful attempt to rewrite or expand the statutory text approved by Congress to suit its own sense of how the statute should operate,” wrote U.S. District Judge Jeremy Kernodle.

As a “partial” result of Trump administration policies, Secretary Kennedy stated “the number of foster children has dropped from 425,000 to 325,000.”

In 2025, the Trump administration committed to removing anti-Christian bias from the federal government. Under that commitment, the HHS is moving forward to remove this rule that discriminated against religious parents who oppose gender ideology and prevented them from providing loving homes to children. 

Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, “Blocking couples from fostering or adopting children based on their religion or their opposition to a harmful gender ideology is unconstitutional. There is no place in the federal government for a rule that discriminates against religious parents.”