The state has failed to demonstrate any legitimate reason, actually any reason at all, for not treating a female spouse in a same-sex marriage the same as a male spouse in an opposite-sex marriage.
A month after the United States saw same-sex marriage legalised, one lesbian couple wins the battle regarding their child’s birth certificate.
Last Wednesday, a federal judge ordered the state of Utah to list both names of the couple on a birth certificate. This is the first ruling of its kind in the United States since same-sex marriage was legalised.
Kami and Angie Roe filed their lawsuit in February shortly after the hospital staff refused to process their birth certificate paperwork. The couple were told that one mother must adopt the baby. The Roes have stated that this process is “costly, invasive and unfair.”
This case is considered an assisted reproduction case. Many couples, including heterosexual couples, use assisted reproduction when it comes to conceiving. US District Judge Dee Benson stated that “The state has failed to demonstrate any legitimate reason, actually any reason at all, for not treating a female spouse in a same-sex marriage the same as a male spouse in an opposite-sex marriage.”
The Roe’s said in their lawsuit that the state “should treat wedded lesbian couples the same as heterosexual couples who use sperm donors to have children.”
Utah state law automatically recognises husbands that agree to assisted reproduction as the father but the Utah attorney general’s office stated that this did not extend to same-sex couples because “a non-biologically related female spouse can never be the biological father of a child.” and that by listing non-biological parents on a birth certificate “could throw off state record-keeping and disrupt the ability of authorities to identify public health trends.”
Judge Benson brought up the point that this could be an issue with a heterosexual couple that decides to use sperm donors.
Following this ruling, Utah is required to list married lesbian parents as the legal mothers from birth. This law does not apply to men in same-sex relationships.
