‘Mother’ and ‘father’ scrapped from Connecticut’s birth documents

The terms ‘mother’ and ‘father’ have been airbrushed from childbirth documents in the US state of Connecticut.

Journalist Colin Wright revealed that the state’s documentation on birth certificates, affidavits and immunisation refer to the “birth parent” and “non-birth parent” instead of the mother and father.

To obtain proof of birth, one document states that a written statement is required “by the birth parent attesting to the date, time, and place of the live birth”.

Birth parent

On Twitter, users slammed the move for being “unbelievable”.

One person lamented: “This is so wrong and dismissive of the terms Mother and Father”.

Several users highlighted that the term “non-birth parent” is so broad it could refer to anyone.

Similar language has been pushed in the states of Pennsylvania and Ohio where documentation uses the terms “birthing parent” or “birth parent”, but retains the word “mother” in some places.

Two ‘mothers’

Last year, two lesbian activists became the first same-sex couple in the Republic of Ireland to be named as legal parents on a birth certificate.

A Dublin court recognised Audrey Rooney as the second ‘mother’ of five-year-old Ava and Arya, aged two, alongside Ranae von Meding – CEO of an LGBT lobby group.

In both instances, Rooney’s egg was fertilised by a sperm donor, but von Meding gave birth to the baby – a procedure known as ‘reciprocal’ IVF.