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In Court: Iowa Fetal Death Certificate Case

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October 26, 2012
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In court today (from left): Taylor, Jenny, Jessica and Lambda Legal's Kenneth D. Upton.

Iowa's Polk County District Court heard oral arguments today in Lambda Legal’s case on behalf of Jenny and Jessica Buntemeyer, a married Iowa couple who gave birth to a stillborn son, Brayden Bruce Buntemeyer. The family’s tragedy was compounded when the Iowa Department of Public Health (IDPH) erased Jenny’s name from his death certificate and refused to return their repeated phone calls for an explanation.

Sign our petition urging the IDPH to issue an accurate death certificate to Jenny and Jessica.

“Fetal death certificates are issued to families grieving an unthinkable loss,” says Camilla Taylor, Marriage Project Director for Lambda Legal. "The state is not only denying that Jenny and Jessica are both mothers, it is trying to erase Jenny from the family. Since Iowa provides this document to married different-sex parents, it must also do so for married same-sex parents."

“Both of us are Brayden’s parents,” says Jessica Buntemeyer. “We are hopeful that the state will provide us with the dignity and respect given to other Iowa families looking for closure in the wake of a tragedy.”

Find out more about the case here.