A Christian adoption agency linked to Trump Education Secretary Betsy DeVos that also has a disturbing history of anti-LGBTQ bias is once again under fire, this time over a report that it left exposed online the “highly sensitive” medical data from 40 of its potential child adoptees.
In addition to names and dates of birth, Bethany Christian Services allegedly left information ranging from HIV status to lab test results to “intellectual development” to number of teeth in “PDFs openly available on its website. Some PDFs were called ‘Children Medical Examination Records,'” VICE News reports.
The charity has multiple connections to the DeVos family: Brian DeVos, a cousin of Betsy DeVos’ husband, was a senior vice president at the organization; Maria DeVos has served on Bethany’s board; and the DeVos family foundations donated more than $6 million to the charity between 1998 and 2016, according to NPR.
Bethany Christian Services is a faith-based foster care and adoption contractor that says it works in 30 states across the country. The State of Michigan last year sued the organization after learning Bethany refused to work with LGBTQ people and same-sex parents. In April the organization, saying it was “disappointed,” agreed to reverse its policy for Michigan, and reportedly will place children in homes headed by LGBTQ people.
Last month Rewire News reported Bethany is one of two organizations that are now “receiving federal teen pregnancy prevention funding” that “promote medication abortion reversal, which the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists considers ‘unproven and unethical.'”
Bethany has benefited from the Trump administration’s family and child migrant “zero tolerance” separation policy. It has been awarded contracts to foster children – reportedly at the rate of $200 to $700 per night per child.
Image: Shutterstock