From One Iowa:
On February 8, 2012 Lambda Legal filed suit against the Iowa Department of Public Health (IDPH) on behalf of Jenny and Jessica Buntemeyer, a married Iowa couple seeking an accurate death certificate for their stillborn baby, Brayden. After the loss of their son, Jenny and Jessica filled out the spaces on the death certificate form for both parents, and indicated that they were married.
IDPH sent the couple a death certificate with Jenny’s name erased.
Sign the One Iowa/ Lambda Legal petition demanding that IDPH stop erasing parents from vital records.
“After the loss of our son, Jenny and I were just trying to process our grief and get through it together,” said Jessica Buntemeyer. “To erase Jenny’s name from the death certificate was like trying to erase all the love, commitment and work we had both put into planning a family. We were in complete shock.”
A week earlier, in another Lambda Legal case, Gartner v. Iowa Dept of Public Health, a Polk County trial court affirmed that the spousal presumption of “legitimacy” applies equally to children born to married same-sex couples, and ruled that Iowa’s birth certificate statute must be interpreted in a gender-neutral way. The court ordered IDPH to issue a birth certificate to the child in Gartner listing both same-sex spouses as parents. IDPH has decided to appeal this ruling.
Lambda Legal is joined by co-counsel Sharon Malheiro, the One Iowa board chair. Together, One Iowa and Lambda Legal are working to bring justice to this family. It is a small consolation in the middle of a nightmare that no parent should EVER have to face.
Read the letter to Marianette Miller Meeks:
Marianette Miller-Meeks
Director, Iowa Department of Public Health
mariannette.miller-meeks@idph.iowa.gov
321 E. 12th Street
Des Moines, Iowa
Dear Dr. Miller-Meeks
I am writing to urge that you issue an accurate fetal death certificate to Jenny Buntemeyer and Jessica Aiken of Davenport, Iowa, whose child, Brayden, was delivered stillborn on October 21, 2011.
Ms. Buntemeyer and Ms. Aiken are a legally married couple in the state of Iowa – and they should be treated like any other married couple who are grieving the death of a stillborn baby.
I am appalled that your office erased Ms. Buntemeyer’s name from her son’s death certificate. It is a shocking display of heartless cruelty. Shame on you.
Ms. Buntemeyer and Ms. Aiken proudly served our nation in Iraq and continue to serve in the Army Reserves. We ask that you similarly serve all Iowans and reissue an accurate fetal death certificate immediately.
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