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Dr. Morse’s testimony child.

My husband and I were foster parents


in San Diego County for three years.
to MN Senate Judiciary I urge you to allow the citizens of
MN the opportunity to exercise their right
Prepared remarks for the Judiciary to vote on the definition of marriage.
Committee of the Removing the requirement that spouses be
Minnesota State Senate, of opposite sex is a redefinition of marriage.
hearings on same sex marriage Redefining marriage redefines parenthood.
Dr Jennifer Roback Morse, founder and Redefining marriage affects the balance of
president of the Ruth Institute, a project of power between the state and civil society.
the National Organization for Marriage The citizens of MN have the right to make
April 29, 2011 up their own minds about these important
St. Paul Minnesota issues.
www.ruthinstitute.org
The proposed amendment is
nothing radical. The people of MN are
We are here to consider giving the entitled to say whether they want marriage
citizens of the State of Minnesota the to remain as the union of one man and one
opportunity to vote on a marriage woman, or whether they want to take their
amendment to their Constitution. The chances with marriage being redefined by
proposed amendment simply states “Only a activist judges. Letting the citizens vote is
union of one man and one woman shall be just the decent thing to do.
valid or recognized as a marriage in MN.”
The essential public purpose of
I am Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse, marriage is to attach mothers and fathers to
founder and president of the Ruth Institute, their children and to one another. We can
a project of the National Organization for see the importance of this purpose by
Marriage. My doctorate is in economics, taking the perspective of the child: What is
from the University of Rochester, in NY. I owed to the child? Unlike adults, the child
have taught at Yale and George Mason does not need autonomy or independence.
Universities. I have had fellowships with the The child is entitled to a relationship with
University of Chicago, Cornell Law School, and care from both of the people who
and the Hoover Institution at Stanford. I brought him into being. Therefore, the child
have written two books on the social has a legitimate interest in the stability of
purpose and significance of marriage. I am his parents’ union. But no child can defend
the mother of an adopted child and a birth these entitlements himself. Nor is it

Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse • 663 S. Rancho Santa Fe Road Suite 222 San Marcos CA 92078
www.jennifer-roback-morse.com • email: drj@jennifer-roback-morse.com • 760/295-9278
©2007 No part of this document may be reproduced or disseminated in any way without the expressed written consent of the
Ruth Institute.
adequate to make restitution after these not be able to do its job. But children will
rights have been violated. The child’s rights still need secure attachments to their
to care and relationship must be supported mothers and fathers, a need which will go
pro-actively, before harm is done, for those unfulfilled.
rights to be protected at all.
Same sex marriage redefines
Marriage is adult society’s parenthood, as a side effect of redefining
institutional structure for protecting the marriage. Up until now, marriage has made
legitimate interests of children. Without legal parenthood track biological
this public purpose, we would not need parenthood, with adoption for exceptional
marriage as a distinct social institution. situations. The legal presumption of
paternity means that children born to a
We often hear the objection that married woman are presumed to be the
some marriages don’t have children. This is children of her husband. With this legal
perfectly true. However, every child has rule, and the social practice of sexual
parents. Depriving a child of relationships exclusivity, marriage attaches children to
with his or her parents is an injustice to the their biological parents.
child, and should not be done without some
compelling or unavoidable reason. The Same sex couples of course, do not
objection that some marriages don’t have procreate together. So called Marriage
children stands the rationale for marriage Equality requires a dubious move from
on its head. It views marriage strictly from “presumption of paternity” to the gender
the adult’s perspective, instead of from the neutral “presumption of parentage.” This
child’s perspective. sleight of hand transforms the legal
understanding of parenthood. The same
Marriage is not simply a special case sex partner of a biological parent is never
of the market, and family law is not simply a the other biological parent. Rather than
subset of property and contract law. attaching children to their biological
Marriage exists to meet the social necessity parents, same sex marriage is the vehicle
of caring for helpless children, who are not that separates children from a parent.
and cannot be, contracting parties.
Children are protected parties. And, No longer will the law hold that
marriage should protect the interests of children need a mother and a father. In the
both parents in pursuing their common wake of marriage redefinition in other
project of rearing their children. If we states, courts are saying silly things like,
replace this essential public purpose with “the traditional notion that children need a
inessential private purposes, marriage will mother and a father to be raised into

Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse • 663 S. Rancho Santa Fe Road Suite 222 San Marcos CA 92078
www.jennifer-roback-morse.com • email: drj@jennifer-roback-morse.com • 760/295-9278
©2007 No part of this document may be reproduced or disseminated in any way without the expressed written consent of the
Ruth Institute.
healthy, well-adjusted adults is based more interchangeable. Society asserts that
on stereotype than anything else.”1 children do equally well with two mommies,
two daddies or one of each. And when
This statement made by the Iowa mothers and fathers are interchangeable, it
Supreme Court in Varnum v Brien, is false as is fathers who will be pushed aside.
a general statement. Mountains of data
show that children do need their mothers In Canada, where same sex unions
and their fathers,2 and that children care have been legal since 2005, the birth
deeply about biological connections.3 certificates reflect this marginalization of
fathers. Each birth certificate in British
Please don’t change the subject by Columbia has a place to mention the
saying that we already have lots of children biological mother. The second parent is
unattached to their parents. We should be listed as “father or co-parent,” and people
taking steps to place responsible limits on check off whether the “other parent” is the
things like divorce, rather than careening father or co-parent. Fatherhood is officially
headlong into further and more deeply reduced to a check-off box.
entrenched institutionalized injustices to
children. You might object that the birth
certificates are purely symbolic, and that we
Equating same sex parenting with could solve this symbolic problem of
opposite sex parenting will also marginalize marginalizing men on the birth certificates
men from the family. By legalizing same sex by simply recording Parent A and Parent B.
unions, the authority of the government Very well. Suppose we do that. That must
declares that mothers and fathers are mean we would record two individuals as
parents, without taking note of which one
1
Varnum v Brien Supreme Court of Iowa, No. 07– has any biological relationship to the child.
1499, Filed April 3, 2009, pg 54, footnote 26 The theory would be that the genetic
2 connection between the child and one
Among the many citations that could be given,
“Why Marriage Matters: 26 Conclusions from the
member of the lesbian couple for instance,
Social Sciences,” (NY: Institute for American Values,
cannot be permitted to “privilege” her in
2005), summarizes some of the most important any way over the other member of the
research. couple.
3
See Elizabeth Marquardt, Norvell Glenn and Karen This suggestion makes plain how
Clark, “My Daddy’s Name is Donor: A Pathbreaking deeply same sex marriage will alter our
Study of Young Adults Conceived through Sperm social structure. The biological principle of
Donation,” (NY: Institute for American Values, 2010). determining parentage will have to be

Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse • 663 S. Rancho Santa Fe Road Suite 222 San Marcos CA 92078
www.jennifer-roback-morse.com • email: drj@jennifer-roback-morse.com • 760/295-9278
©2007 No part of this document may be reproduced or disseminated in any way without the expressed written consent of the
Ruth Institute.
suppressed, and eventually replaced with of ordinary citizens. This is what “getting
another principle. That principle will be that the state out of the marriage business” will
the state will decide who counts as a eventually come to mean.
parent.
In short, redefining marriage from
We can already see this in disputed the union of a man and a woman to the
custody cases. Courts are awarding union of any two persons jettisons three
parenting rights to individuals who not foundational principles: first, the principle
related to the child, either through biology that children are entitled to a relationship
or adoption. Perfectly fit parents are having with both parents, second, the biological
their parental rights diminished because principle for determining parentage, and
they once had a sexual relationship with third, the principle that the state recognizes
someone.4 When courts ‘eradicate the parentage, but does not assign it.
parent/non-parent dichotomy,’ they must
establish multi-part tests for determining I am often told I am on the “wrong
whether a person warrants the status of side of History.” The justice of “marriage
“de facto parent.” The court ends up equality” is overwhelming; the younger
scrutinizing the minutiae of family life. generation favors it; same sex marriage is
inevitable. But there is ample reason to
Let us be clear: the alternative to doubt this March of History storyline: we
the biological principle for determining were told all these things about abortion
parentage is the principle that the too.
government decides who is a parent.
Instead of simply recording parentage, the “You need to accept Roe v. Wade.
state will determine parentage, not in Abortion is simple justice for women.
exceptional cases, but routinely. This is far Besides, the next generation will completely
too much discretion to allow the family accept abortion. You are on the Wrong Side
courts. Those of you who think like of History.”
libertarians should be particularly alarmed A funny thing happened on the way
by this expansion of the state into the lives to History: the people did not perform as
4
promised. In January 2010, I took a group of
“Court upholds woman’s “de facto” parental
Ruth Institute students up to the West
rights,” Delaware On-Line, April 18, 2011;
Coast Walk for Life in San Francisco. Official
http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20110419/
estimates place the attendance at over
NEWS01/104190347/Court-upholds-woman-s-de-
35,000. But I wasn’t counting. I was looking
facto-parental-
at the faces. I saw what anyone can see, if
rights?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|Home|s

Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse • 663 S. Rancho Santa Fe Road Suite 222 San Marcos CA 92078
www.jennifer-roback-morse.com • email: drj@jennifer-roback-morse.com • 760/295-9278
©2007 No part of this document may be reproduced or disseminated in any way without the expressed written consent of the
Ruth Institute.
they care to look: the pro-life movement is together by a series of contracts among
a youth movement. adults,5 those children will just have more
adults to love them. Divorce, separation,
The average age of the walkers at complex custody quarrels, kids shuttling
the West Coast Walk for Life was probably between four households with their
around late twenties. Toward the front of sleeping bags and backpacks:6 that’s just
the parade were the Berkeley Students for anti-equality hysteria and will never
Life (yes, there is such a thing) and the happen.
Stanford pro-life club, (yes, they exist as
well). Busloads of high school students, But biology will reassert itself. Some
college students road-tripping in from all women who have children with female
over the West Coast, families with small partners will find that sharing the care of
children, babies in arms, backpacks and their children with another woman, is not
strollers. The next generation is not going as easy as sharing the care with the child’s
along quietly with the March of History. father. Some men who agree to be sperm
donors as “friends” will find that they want
And why should they?

It is the interests of children that the 55


“Why just Two? Disaggregating Traditional
Abortion Regime sets aside in order to Parental Rights and Responsibilities to Recognize
accommodate the desires of adults. And it Multiple Parents,” Melanie Jacobs, Michigan State
is the interests of children that the University College of Law, Legal Studies Research
redefinition of marriage will set aside as Paper Series, No. 05-04; “Johnny has two
well. Remember the old pro-abortion mommies—and four dads,” Boston Globe, October
slogan, “every child a wanted child?” Who 24, 2010,
can take that seriously today? Today’s same http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles
sex marriage mantra, “Kids just need two /2010/10/24/johnny_has_two_mommies__and_fou
adults who love them” will come to sound r_dads/
every bit as hollow. 6
“Pennsylvania Court finds three Adults Can Have
Advocates of redefining marriage Parental Rights,”
assure us that children will do fine, http://newyorklawschool.typepad.com/leonardlink/
2007/05/pennsylvania_co.html (quoting Superior
whatever the loving adults in their lives
Court case, Jacob v Shultz-Jacob, 2007 Westlaw
decide to do. IVF children will be so wanted
1240885 , 2007 PA Super 118), “Canadian court
by their legal parents that the lifetime
rules boy has a dad and two moms,”
separation from their natural parents will
http://www.religioustolerance.org/hommarr3par.ht
not trouble them. Children of
m
unconventional family structures, held
Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse • 663 S. Rancho Santa Fe Road Suite 222 San Marcos CA 92078
www.jennifer-roback-morse.com • email: drj@jennifer-roback-morse.com • 760/295-9278
©2007 No part of this document may be reproduced or disseminated in any way without the expressed written consent of the
Ruth Institute.
more of a relationship with their own happened in Massachusetts.” Redefining
children than they had anticipated.7 And marriage redefines the way generations
some children are going to have feelings relate to one another. It is foolishness to
about their absent parents, uncomfortable believe we would feel the full impact of
questions about their origins, and complex such a profound change in a few years. It
emotions about being partially purchased.8 will take at least a generation, a full thirty
years or more, before the full effects of
Advocates of so called marriage redefining marriage work themselves out
equality typically respond, “That’s just throughout the legal and social system.9
biology,” as if biology were nothing. They
are asking people to set aside the natural The only argument for redefining
attachment of parents to their own marriage is so-called “equality.” Equality in
children, the natural difficulties of treating this context takes a venerable American
another person’s child as if they were your concept and twists it out of recognition.
own, the natural desires of children to know Equality used to mean limiting the power of
who they are and where they came from. the state to make irrelevant distinctions
Suppressing all these feelings in all these among citizens. But marriage equality is
people will not be possible indefinitely. As becoming a battering ram for smashing
time marches on, the brutality of the every aspect of social life that has any hint
marriage “equality” regime will become just of sexual differentiation. No more mothers
as obvious as the brutality of the abortion and fathers, only Parent 1 and Parent 2.
regime is today. Marriage is the right side
of history. 9
Quoting divorce statistics in Massachusetts, as is
sometimes done, is frankly ridiculous, since the
And I don’t think you can fall back divorce rate rose by 4.5% in MA between 2004 and
on the idea that “nothing so terrible has 2007, while the divorce rate across the whole of the
US fell by 2.7%.
7
“Gay Irish sperm donor wins visiting rights to http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvss/Divorce%20Rat
lesbian couple’s child,” Irish Central, December 11, es%2090%2095%20and%2099-07.pdf (Divorce Rate
2009; http://www.irishcentral.com/news/Gay-Irish- by State, 1990- 2007, Division of Vital Statistics,
sperm-donor-wins-visiting-right-to-lesbian-couples- National Center for Health Statistics, CDC. Page last
child-79055562.html updated, November 19, 2010), and
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/marriage_divorce_ta
8
See Elizabeth Marquardt, Norvell Glenn and Karen bles.htm National Marriage and Divorce Trends,
Clark, “My Daddy’s Name is Donor: A Pathbreaking National Vital Statistics System. Provisional number
Study of Young Adults Conceived through Sperm of divorces and annulments and rates, United States,
Donation,” (NY: Institute for American Values, 2010). 2000-2007, page last updated, November 19, 2010.

Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse • 663 S. Rancho Santa Fe Road Suite 222 San Marcos CA 92078
www.jennifer-roback-morse.com • email: drj@jennifer-roback-morse.com • 760/295-9278
©2007 No part of this document may be reproduced or disseminated in any way without the expressed written consent of the
Ruth Institute.
Let me remind you that a vast
majority of African Americans completely
reject same sex marriage. They are deeply
offended by the high-jacking of the moral
authority of their civil rights movement.

Previous generations of social


experimenters have caused unimaginable
misery for millions of people. Particular
people advocated the policies that led to
today’s 50% divorce rate and 40% out of
wedlock childbearing rate. None of these
people has ever been held accountable.

The people of Minnesota are


sensible mature people, who want to be
accountable for what happens in their
state. The people of Minnesota deserve a
chance to vote. Redefining marriage will
have far-reaching consequences that ought
to be fully aired. Putting this amendment
on the ballot will allow that discussion to
take place. Something this significant
should not be rammed down the throats of
an unwilling citizenry by judges. Let the
people vote.

Jennifer Roback Morse, Ph.D. is an


economist and the Founder and President of
the Ruth Institute, a nonprofit educational
organization devoted to bringing hope and
encouragement for lifelong married love.
She is also the author of Love and
Economics: It Takes a Family to Raise a
Village and Smart Sex: Finding Life-Long
Love in a Hook-Up World.

Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse • 663 S. Rancho Santa Fe Road Suite 222 San Marcos CA 92078
www.jennifer-roback-morse.com • email: drj@jennifer-roback-morse.com • 760/295-9278
©2007 No part of this document may be reproduced or disseminated in any way without the expressed written consent of the
Ruth Institute.

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