In a recent article written for CNN, Moni Basu discusses the current legal battle over second-parent adoptions in the state of North Carolina. Second-parent adoption is when someone in relationship with the legal parent of a child adopts said child, and the first parent retains his or her rights. Six same-sex couples, represented by the ACLU, are fighting for their right for both parents to have a legal relationship with their child.

Moni Basu claims: “children who are prevented from having such a legally recognized relationship with both parents suffer numerous deprivations as a result, including exclusion from private health insurance benefits, public health benefits, veterans benefits, disability benefits, social security benefits, life insurance benefits, and workers’ compensation, as well as uncertainty about their ability to continue their relationship with their second parent if something should happen to their legal parent,” she states.

Opponents maintain that the state has an interest in keeping the law as it is.

Peter Sprigg of the Family Research Council, a conservative Christian lobbying group, told CNN “we believe it’s entirely legitimate for a state to give preference to married couples in adoption over unmarried couples…Children do better when they are raised by married parents than they do when they are raised by cohabitating parents.”

It seems the “states interests” trump the children’s, whom they claim to be protecting.