PRESS RELEASE
21 March 2007

Sexual Orientation Regulations should not force Christian adoption agencies to fold

On Monday (19 March) the Government’s Sexual Orientation Regulations were passed by Parliament by 310 votes to 100 votes. Despite pressure from the Conservative Party, the Government did not publish the Regulations in draft and there was no exemption from anti-discrimination laws for Christian adoption agencies and other Christian faith organisations.

On Monday night Malcolm Moss MP was one of the 100 members who voted against the sexual orientation regulations.

Malcolm Moss MP says:

“I supported the Equality Act during its passage through Parliament and I support gay adoption in principle, which has been the law for some time. The general principle of non-discrimination must not be diluted. However, when the details of the sexual orientation regulations were disclosed, including those details on religious adoption agencies, I was against the regulations as I felt they were not flexible in allowing for religious conscience in certain areas to override strict interpretation of the law.

“In other areas we allow personal conscience to override the legal position. The main example of this would be abortion policy whereby any doctor who opposes it on religious grounds is not forced to help a woman to abort. It is my belief that the same sort of flexibility should have been extended to religious adoption agencies in the issue of gay adoption.”

The Conservatives did approach the Government about the possibility of reaching a compromise. It was suggested that it might be in the interests of all parties in this matter if the Government were to consider amending the Equality Act, rather than simply present the Regulations in a form which cannot be amended. Had Parliament heeded this advice it would have allowed them to look at the detail of the proposals sensibly and to table amendments that might potentially reconcile the objectives of all parties.

Malcolm Moss MP says:

“Despite this, I sincerely hope a way can be found to allow the work done by these organisations to continue during the 21 month transition period before the Regulations come fully into force.”