Friday, July 22, 2005

Birth Certificates: No, A Baby Can't Have Two Mommies

Things have gone too far: The inmates are running the asylum, and they are still complaining. They still don't have everything they can imagine. Meanwhile, the Governor only quibbles over minor details, but still gives in on the big stuff. (See "Birth certificate policy draws fire; change affects same-sex couples", Boston Globe, 7-22-05):

"Governor Mitt Romney's administration is advising hospitals to cross out the word father on birth certificates for the children of same-sex couples and instead write the phrase ''second parent," angering gay and lesbian advocates and city and town clerks who warn that the altered documents could be legally questionable.

"Eric Fehrnstrom, Romney's spokesman, said yesterday that the Department of Public Health, which the governor oversees, has been has been advising hospitals to alter the documents since last year, when the first children were born to same-sex married couples were born.

"Fehrnstrom insisted that the practice is legal. But city and town clerks, who register and store birth records, argue that the cross-outs on the birth certificates could make them open to challenges by passport agents, foreign governments, and other officials. They have repeatedly asked Romney to create a new birth certificate for the children of same-sex parents that would include gender-neutral nomenclature.

"But Romney has resisted, arguing that the Legislature must first pass a law authorizing such a change."

Time for a reality check for the "homosexual parenting" crowd. No, a baby CAN'T have two mommies. It's biologically and socially impossible. And Governor Romney is right to say our certificates should not be officially changed to read "Mother" and "Second Parent". Too bad he doesn't realize that this nonsense shouldn't even be hand-written in!

But Romney's lesbian-mommy critics are correct that his administration is inconsistent: They changed marriage licenses in May 2004 to read "Party A" and "Party B", instead of "Husband" and "Wife". So why can't they change birth certificates now? The same argument that the Governor is using to stop short of reprinting the birth certificates applies to marriage certificates too: Neither same-sex parent status nor same-sex "marriage" was ever made law, is without statutory basis, and is still not legal. So why did the Governor change the marriage certificates?

It's time for Gov. Romney to face up to his BIG MISTAKE in May 2004. He could have halted same-sex "marriage", but didn't. It was within his power to just say NO. He could have ordered the Department of Public Health and town offices NOT to issue "marriage" certificates to same-sex couples. But he wasn't a candidate for President then.

There's another very disturbing aspect to this story. All this sperm-bank, anonymous cellular-level parenting is creating a "brave new world" difficult for the child (and everyone else) to navigate. Children DO want and need to know who their biological fathers are. Adoptive parents know this very well. Adopted children yearn to know as many details about both biological parents as possible. Children in fatherless homes know in their guts something is missing. But the homosexual activists will answer that we just need to re-educate these children and society.

Common sense and everyday observation tells us that a father's absence is emotionally harmful to the child. Also, the medical history of the biological father would benefit the child, even if he is absent. As far as we know, this "brave new world" (including required identities and biological histories of sperm and egg donors) is an unregulated mess. And it's just going to get messier. There will be crazy custody battles when couples split, problems with recognition of legal parent when the family or one of the "mommies" moves out of Massachusetts, etc. The children of these unions will surely be harmed.

Governor Romney and the Mass. Legislature are complicit, along with the Mass. Supreme Judicial Court, in creating this disaster.