Children Born Via Artificial Insemination Are Illegitimate? Tennessee Lawmaker Clarifies Proposed Bill

A Tennessee lawmaker has proposed a bill that will repeal the statute concerning children born via artificial insemination. Republican Rep. Terri Lynn Weaver's bill supposedly wants these kids to be considered illegitimate. The lawmaker, however, issued a clarification to her proposal following strong opposition from the public.

The Tennessean reported Weaver's proposal has received a backlash as some have deemed this an attack on same-sex parents or those who have enlisted surrogates for their babies. Some called out the bill as discriminatory and will hurt not just same-sex couples but also families with heterosexual parents who might need to go through the process of establishing paternity in court.

Under HB 1406, Weaver proposed to "repeal a statute that deems a child born to a married woman as a result of artificial insemination, with the consent of the married woman's husband, to be the legitimate child of the husband and wife." The bill was introduced in the House last Feb. 9.

Weaver, however, turned to Facebook to clarify her stand. "HB 1406 does not apply to same-sex marriages at all," the representative wrote. Weaver said that her proposal is to repeal a previous statute TCA 68-3-306 in the 2010 Tennessee Code that conflicted with another statute, TCA 36-2-304.

The representative said her aim is to repeal conflicting laws. "[It] does not have the government inquiring into the means by which the couple¹s child came into existence or whose sperm, the husband's or a donor's, was used," Weaver stressed on her Facebook post.

In 2016, Weaver and her Republican allies intervened in a divorce concerning same-sex parents and the custody of their child who was conceived through artificial insemination. The GOP lawmakers asserted the lesbian partner, who legally married the child's mother in Washington, D.C. in 2014, should not be considered the legitimate parent as the law only protected "husbands," according to Knoxville News Sentinel. At that time of their marriage, Tennessee did not yet recognize same-sex marriage.