Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott
argues in a brief filed Friday in a case before the Fifth Circuit
Court of Appeals in New Orleans that Texas' gay marriage ban promotes
“responsible procreation.”
“First, Texas's marriage laws are
rationally related to the State's interest in encouraging couples to
produce new offspring, which are needed to ensure economic growth and
the survival of the human race,” Abbott wrote in a
36-page brief.
“Second, Texas’s marriage laws are
rationally related to the State’s interest in reducing unplanned
out-of-wedlock births. By channeling procreative heterosexual
intercourse into marriage, Texas’s marriage laws reduce unplanned
out-of-wedlock births and the costs that those births impose on
society.” “Recognizing same-sex marriage does not advance this
interest because same-sex unions do not result in pregnancy,” he
added.
U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia
struck down Texas' ban in February, saying it demeans the dignity of
gay couples for no legitimate reason.
While Abbott, the Republican nominee
for governor, concedes that allowing gay couples to marry might
provide some benefits to society, the decision to recognize such
unions, he argues, should be made by lawmakers, not judges.
The Fifth Circuit Court last week
agreed to a request made by a plaintiff couple to expedite the case.
Married couple Nicole Dimetman and Cleopatra DeLeon are expecting
their second child in March and hope a victory would help them
establish parental rights.
The court said that the same 3-judge
panel would hear cases challenging bans in Texas and Louisiana within
the next couple of months. The Fifth Circuit also includes
Mississippi.