CLDC Blog July 20, 2015
By Rebecca K. Smith, CLDC Board President & Cooperating Attorney
Last week, in Roe v. Patton, a federal court in Utah ruled that Utah must recognize a same-sex married couple as the legal parents of their child from birth. Under Utah state law, if a woman becomes pregnant with donated sperm, her husband is automatically recognized as the father even though he is not the biological father. In Roe, the federal court found that this same law must apply equally to a same-sex married couple. Thus, when a woman becomes pregnant with donated sperm, her wife must be automatically recognized as the child’s parent.
Instead of treating the same-sex couple equally under the law, the state had required the couple to go through a step-parent adoption process. The federal court issued a preliminary injunction last week against the state’s action and held that both women must be automatically legally recognized as parents from birth.
This ruling was made possible in part by the Supreme Court’s recent ruling on marriage equality that prohibits disparate treatment against same sex couples under the law. Oppressive laws that once discriminated against same-sex couples are now disappearing off the books one by one, lawsuit by lawsuit. We will keep you updated as more and more of these opinions are issued by the courts.