Melissa Gartner, and Heather Gartner of Des Moins, Iowa had a beautiful baby girl in 2009. However the state would not list Melissa and Heather on the birth certificate of their daughter Mackenzie. Earlier that year the Iowa Supreme Court decided to legalize same-sex marriages, and same-sex marriages must be given the “full access to the institution of marriage,”. So they sued, and Wednesday Polk County District Judge Eliza Ovrom ruled in favor of the mothers ordering the Iowa Department of Public Health to issue Mackenzie a new birth certificate and include the names of both her mothers.
The Des Moins Register reports:
Ovrom’s 12-page ruling stops short of declaring a constitutional right for same-sex parents to be named automatically on newborns’ birth certificates. But it faults state officials for failing to correctly interpret older Iowa laws in light of the April 2009 Iowa Supreme Court decision that legalized same-sex marriages.
State administrators are bound by the 2009 case to interpret laws in a way that gives “full access to the institution of marriage,” Ovrom wrote.
“Pursuant to Varnum v. Brien, where a married woman gives birth to a baby conceived through use of an anonymous sperm donor, the Department of Public Health should place her same-sex spouse’s name on the child’s birth certificate without requiring the spouse to go through an adoption proceeding,” Ovrom concluded. “Petitioners have proven the Department’s actions are in violation of law and based on an erroneous interpretation of the law….”
They’re not quite out of the woods yet however, a public health spokeswoman said Wednesday “respects the limited scope of the judge’s ruling. We are reviewing the judge’s order, and Director (Mariannette) Miller-Meeks will be deciding whether to appeal the case within the next couple of weeks.”
I can only hope the Director see’s they cannot win, and doesn’t go on to appeal. I’m sure Heather and Melissa have been through quite enough and would like for this matter to be settled.
Read the rest of the Register‘s article here.
Image via: USA Today
