Morning Bell: Not Just a Stereotype
Conn Carroll /
This past Friday the Iowa Supreme Court rewrote the definition of marriage to include same-sex couples. Justifying their rejection of the argument that “the optimal environment for children is to be raised within a marriage of both a father and a mother,” Justice Mark Cady wrote: “The research … suggests that the traditional notion that children need a mother and a father to be raised into healthy adjusted adults is based more on stereotype than anything else.”
First of all, the court is just wrong on the facts. Children whose parents marry and stay married have been found to have better health and are less likely to be depressed, are less likely to repeat a grade in school, and have fewer developmental problems than other children. If poor women who have children out of wedlock were married to the actual fathers of their children, nearly two-thirds would be lifted out of poverty immediately.