Melissa and Heather Gartner have won a
legal challenge to list them as legal parents on an Iowa-issued birth
certificate, the Des
Moines Register reported.
Polk County District Judge Eliza Ovrom
ruled that the Iowa Department of Public Health erred when it refused
to list both the couple's names on the birth certificate of their
2-year-old daughter, Mackenzie, who was conceived though artificial
insemination.
In her 12-page ruling, Ovrom cited the
Iowa Supreme Court's 2009 ruling legalizing gay marriage in the
state.
“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.
Petitioners have proven the Department's actions are in violation of
law and based on an erroneous interpretation of the law ...”
State lawyers had argued that Iowa's
gender-specific parenting laws bar them from replacing a “husband”
with a “spouse.”