Bills Say No Difference on Non-Marital Parenting

Details: 22 February 2013

The new Nebraska Legislature, with 11 members who were not part of the elite body last year, has completed a third of its 2013 session. Already, 15 bills have been passed and more than a dozen others indefinitely postponed at the committee stage. The start has been smooth and this lawmaking journey is well underway.

More than half of the 670 or so introduced bills and substantive legislative resolutions, which include proposed constitutional amendments, have had their public hearings. The remainder will be done with that process over the next three weeks. Priority-bill designations will soon start to be announced and by March 15 all 49 legislators and the 14 standing committees will have made those selections, one for each legislator, two for each committee. These bills, along with a couple dozen more to be prioritized by the Speaker, will pretty much set the course for the remainder of the session, except for the highly important package of budget bills.

More than 115 bills were referred to the Judiciary Committee for public hearings and early-stage filtering. Looming ahead and soon to be considered are two bills that are provocative, intensely challenging and emotionally charged, having to do with the nature of family and the best interest of children and teens.

LB 380, introduced by Omaha Senator Sara Howard, proposes to change the traditional Nebraska law governing adoption in a way that would allow any two adult persons, whether married or not, to jointly adopt a child. Furthermore, any parent of a child could consent to adoption of the child by the parent’s spouse "or by another adult who will share parental responsibility for the child with such parent, without the parent having to relinquish his or her legal rights to the child." This latter aspect is largely in response to a 2002 decision by the Nebraska Supreme Court, which ruled that an unmarried partner could not use adoption to become, in essence, a co-parent of her same-sex partner’s biological child, because Nebraska law allows for adoption without relinquishment of a biological parent’s rights only when the adopting party is the husband or wife of the biological parent.

LB 385, introduced by Omaha Senator Jeremy Nordquist, addresses the context of out-of-home placement of juveniles in foster care. It would add a policy provision to the Nebraska Juvenile Code that would explicitly prohibit the state Department of Health and Human Services, when determining the suitability of an out-of-home placement, from discriminating "on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, marital status, or national origin." Presumably this would mean that the agency could not take any of these factors into consideration in making placement decisions, except perhaps to the extent that some federal laws might apply.

Presumably, LB 385 is motivated at least in part by a desire to address the shortage of foster-care homes. The shortage is a problem that needs solutions, but not every intuitive solution is morally legitimate.

Setting aside the uncertain influence of political correctness, the debates over both LB 380 and LB 385 are likely to involve disagreement over social science and theories of human development. On one hand, both the common experience of humanity and a solid body of evidence demonstrate that the dual-gender unit of husband and wife results in the best developmental outcomes and serves the best interest of children; that is, their well-being is best served by being raised in a home with a husband and wife fulfilling the roles of father and mother. On the other hand, proponents of the bills no doubt will cite social science literature that claims no difference; that other, non-marital relationships, including sexual or romantic relationships, are just as effective, just as good for children. Lawmakers, starting with the members of the Judiciary Committee, will have to decide: maintain the status quo or open public policy to experiments involving the lives of vulnerable children?

The Nebraska Catholic Conference, under the direction of the Diocesan Bishops, is opposed to both LB 380 and LB 385. From the Conference’s perspective, if it is not possible for a child to be raised by his or her biological parents, then the best placement is a home of a marriage: husband and wife/father and mother.

Nebraskans who are concerned about the issues stemming from these bills should contact their own, respective legislator, as well as the members of the Judiciary Committee. Information is available from the Legislature’s website: www.nebraskalegislature.gov.

And finally, on another front….

LB 518, which proposes to repeal the 2012 law that authorizes medical assistance for prenatal care for the unborn children of impoverished pregnant women who are not eligible in their own right because of unauthorized immigration status, has been scheduled for its public hearing on March 21. That’s the last day of hearings for the session for the Health and Human Services Committee. Hopefully, that will be the end for LB 518.