Heather Martin Gartner and Melissa Gartner, Individually and as Next Friends of Mackenzie Jean Gartner, a Minor Child v. Iowa Department of Public Health

WIGGINS, Justice.

In this appeal, we must decide whether Iowa Code section 144.13(2) (2011) requires the Iowa Department of Public Health to list as a parent on a child’s birth certificate the nonbirthing spouse in a lesbian marriage when the child was born to one of the spouses during the couple’s marriage. The district court interpreted the statute to require the Department to issue a birth certificate listing the spouse as the child’s parent. The district court also stayed its ruling as to any other birth certificates the Department may issue to married lesbian couples pending the appeal of…