Same-sex parenting harms kids – why approve it?

News

The crucial link between biology and parenthood continues to come under relentless attack in Western countries. The result is more children being deprived of their basic right to be raised by a married mother and father – and ideally, wherever possible, their own.

In Jersey, the Government has delayed its proposals to grant automatic parental status to same-sex couples by putting both their names on the birth certificate. The delay is welcome, of course, but appears to be purely procedural, a result of trying to bring in the change at the same time as a separate bill abolishing the concept of “illegitimacy”.

Deputy Louise Doublet claimed the change is “about children’s human rights. Some children don’t have both their parents named on their birth certificate, and that is a basic human right every child should have”. But this gets it completely wrong: the real children’s human right is for youngsters, where possible, to know and be brought up by their own mum and dad, a right guaranteed by natural parenthood and marriage, and which Jersey’s proposal rides roughshod over.

Regrettably, across the UK the law already allows two women or two men to be recorded as parents on a child’s birth certificate through adoption or assisted reproduction rules. Where Britain has led, Jersey seems intent on following, severing legal motherhood and fatherhood from the reality of being someone’s mum or dad and enshrining in statute a family form that studies show is worse for children.

Take the work of Prof Donald Paul Sullins. His analysis of nationally representative US data found emotional difficulty rates significantly increase among children raised by same-sex parents compared with those nurtured by their married mum and dad. In a follow up, he surveyed the academic literature and discovered that few studies used true random samples and adequate controls – and every one reported poorer outcomes for children in same-sex households.

Other scholars tell the same story. Family sociologist Prof Walter Schumm also highlights higher relationship instability and weaker academic results for youngsters in same-sex parent families. Time and again, the gold standard comparator – marriage between one man and one woman – comes out on top.

Yet this evidence is being ignored not just by legislators but by courts. In Italy, the Constitutional Court has recently defied the country’s pro-family Government and given same-sex female couples who use IVF abroad the right to both be legally recognised as parents, even if neither is the biological mother.

Legislators and judges need to stop prioritising adult desires, and start putting children’s needs first. They should examine the evidence, resist the siren call of adults’ wishes and keep the indispensable safeguard that every child, wherever possible, is entitled to the care of both a mother and a father.

At C4M we are determined to keep legislators’ feet to the fire. We will keep broadcasting the hard evidence until every lawmaker understands that children flourish best with their own married mum and dad – and every law opposed to this is repealed. We will get there! Thank you for standing with us.