The Aftermath of Dobbs: What Same-Sex Parents Should Do To Protect Their Legal Relationship to Their Children

A legal parent is a person who is legally recognized as a child's parent and has the legal right to have custody of a child and make decisions about the child's health, education, and well-being. When a legally married couple has a child, they are both automatically presumed to be the legal parents of the child. This means that, if they get divorced, they both remain, legal parents unless a court terminates one or both of their parental rights. This presumption applies to same-sex parents when children are born to couples who are married or where their state recognizes their civil union or comprehensive domestic partnership at the time the child is born.

In the presentation Denise E. Seidelman, Partner at Rumbold & Seidelman, and Debra Guston, Partner at Guston & Guston, LLP, will discuss the current laws and what could potentially happen to same-sex parents after the recent abortion ruling, Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization.

Learning Objectives: 

1. Analyze who currently has the right to be recognized as the legal parent of a child

2. Outline the issues affecting same-sex parents in relation to their legal right to be a parent

3. Discuss what attorneys need to know to protect their clients' legal relationship with their children 

4. Illustrate how overturning Obergefell would impact the right of same-sex couples' right to be recognized as the legal parent(s) of their children