Arkansas panel rejects bill on same-sex birth certificates

LITTLE ROCK — An Arkansas Senate committee has rejected a proposal aimed at allowing married same-sex couples to get the names of both spouses on their children's birth certificates without a court order.

The Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday rejected by a voice vote the proposal to change the presumption of parentage under the state's artificial insemination and surrogacy laws.

The proposal was filed in response to a state Supreme Court ruling last year reversing a judge's decision to strike down Arkansas' birth certificate law as unconstitutional.

Attorneys are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review that decision on the grounds that it undermines the 2015 U.S. Supreme Court decision that legalized same-sex marriage nationwide.

Read Tuesday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.

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