BOSTON -- The legal fight over child support payments between two women has ended up before the state's highest court.
NewsCenter 5's Amalia Barreda reported that the couple split up just a few months before the baby was born. Now, the woman who gave birth to the boy says her former partner is financially responsible for the child's upbringing.
In the HBO film "If These Walls Could Talk," Sharon Stone and Ellen Degeneres play a lesbian couple who happily plan to have a baby through artificial insemination.
That is how the story apparently began for two women known in court documents as TF and BI -- once committed partners who have separated and are now battling over child support for a 3-year-old boy. TF's attorney told the Supreme Judicial Court his client had the child because her partner supported and agreed to the whole idea of parenthood.
"The test that we articulated in our brief is that there is an agreement to bring a child into the world and the child would not exist but for that agreement. BI understood from the get-go here that she was this child's parent," TF's attorney Bennett Klein said.
The relationship had no written agreement on the pregnancy. BI's attorney, Wendy Sibbison, argued a lower court found there was not even an implied agreement that BI was assuming parental responsibility.
"The judge didn't make a finding that there was an implied meeting of the minds about the duty of child support. She found the opposite. She pretty much found that BI did not agree to this," Sibbison said.
TF claims she and BI had all kinds of parental discussions -- like needing a bigger home and choosing a school for the child.
"This is an issue about fairness to children. And making sure that children of unmarried parents have the same rights and protections and opportunities as children of married parents," Bennett said.
"This case is about a single woman who chooses to become pregnant by artificial insemination. And my basic argument is if you're going to do that, at least ask your partner before you get inseminated where they're willing to take on the duty of child support. These parties had no conversation about it," Sibbison said.
The court typically takes 130 days to hand down its decisions
NewsCenter 5's Amalia Barreda reported that the couple split up just a few months before the baby was born. Now, the woman who gave birth to the boy says her former partner is financially responsible for the child's upbringing.
In the HBO film "If These Walls Could Talk," Sharon Stone and Ellen Degeneres play a lesbian couple who happily plan to have a baby through artificial insemination.
That is how the story apparently began for two women known in court documents as TF and BI -- once committed partners who have separated and are now battling over child support for a 3-year-old boy. TF's attorney told the Supreme Judicial Court his client had the child because her partner supported and agreed to the whole idea of parenthood.
"The test that we articulated in our brief is that there is an agreement to bring a child into the world and the child would not exist but for that agreement. BI understood from the get-go here that she was this child's parent," TF's attorney Bennett Klein said.
The relationship had no written agreement on the pregnancy. BI's attorney, Wendy Sibbison, argued a lower court found there was not even an implied agreement that BI was assuming parental responsibility.
"The judge didn't make a finding that there was an implied meeting of the minds about the duty of child support. She found the opposite. She pretty much found that BI did not agree to this," Sibbison said.
TF claims she and BI had all kinds of parental discussions -- like needing a bigger home and choosing a school for the child.
"This is an issue about fairness to children. And making sure that children of unmarried parents have the same rights and protections and opportunities as children of married parents," Bennett said.
"This case is about a single woman who chooses to become pregnant by artificial insemination. And my basic argument is if you're going to do that, at least ask your partner before you get inseminated where they're willing to take on the duty of child support. These parties had no conversation about it," Sibbison said.
The court typically takes 130 days to hand down its decisions
