Ousted Alabama Supreme Court Justice Roy Moore claims legalizing marriage for gay and lesbian couples will lead to “child abuse.”

At a Tuesday rally held on the steps of the Iowa Statehouse, Moore, who was removed from the bench in 2003 for refusing to move a monument of the Ten Commandments on public property that he had commissioned, told about 500 supporters of a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage in the state that no society is prepared for the ills the institution brings, the Iowa Independent reported.

“No society is prepared to deal with the problems arising out of same-sex marriages; child abuse, adoption, divorce, foster care, alimony and the list goes on and on,” Moore told a welcoming crowd. (The video is embedded in the right panel of this page.)

The rally was organized by Bob Vander Plaats' socially conservative group The Family Leader. The group and its supporters are calling on the Iowa Senate to follow the House's lead and approve the Iowa Marriage Amendment. Democratic Senate Majority Leader Michael Gronstal has blocked the measure from reaching the Senate floor.

Also at the rally, prominent NAACP leader Rev. Keith Ratliff Sr. called on the gay community to stop “hijacking” the civil rights movement.