Attorney General Todd Rokita is filing motions to intervene in cases in which Indiana trial courts have ordered the Indiana Department of Health (IDOH) to change the designation of sex on birth certificates to reflect preferred gender identities.
“We’re taking a stand not only for the rule of law but also for common sense,” Attorney General Rokita said. “Indiana law requires birth certificates to reflect the historical, immutable fact of a child’s sex. One should have no more ability to change the listed sex on a birth certificate years after the fact than to change the newborn’s listed length or weight.”
In dozens of instances, trial courts have ordered IDOH to change the historical record of a newborn’s sex.
The State of Indiana was not made a party to any of these cases, but according to Attorney General Rokita, the state has a clear interest in protecting the integrity of its own processes of issuing birth certificates.
Beyond existing state laws already providing clarity on these matters, Governor Mike Braun has issued an executive order instructing state agencies to interpret and apply “sex” to mean “an individual human being’s immutable biological classification as either male or female” as determined at conception.
