American Civil Liberties Union

When the American Academy of Pediatrics passed its policy statement supporting second-parent adoptions by lesbian and gay parents in 2002, a fringe group of approximately 60 of the AAP’s more than 60,000 members formed the “American College of Pediatricians.”¹ This group has been described by one of its charter members as a “Judeo-Christian, traditional-values organization,” that is open to pediatric medical professionals of all religions “who hold to [the ACP’s] core beliefs,” which are that “life begins at conception, and that the traditional family unit, headed by an opposite-sex couple, poses far fewer risk factors in the adoption and raising of children.”² This group issued a position statement in January 2004 supporting the “age-old prohibition on homosexual parenting, whether by adoption, foster care, or by reproductive manipulation.”³

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1. Pamela P. Wong, “New Pediatricians Group Blasts AAP Endorsement of ‘Gay’ Parenting,” Concerned Women for America, 2003, http://www.cultureandfamily.org/articledisplay.asp?id=4053&department=CFI&categoryid=cfreport (December 19, 2005).  See also “Charter Member Physicians,” American College of Pediatricians, 2004, http://www.acpeds.org/?CONTEXT=art&cat=10002&art=25&BISKIT=2344774610  (19 December 2005)

2. Roy Waller and Linda Nicolosi, “Pediatricians’ Groups Differ on Attitudes Toward Homosexual Parenting,” National Association of Research & Therapy of Homosexuality, (September 2004), http://www.narth.com/docs/differ.html (2 December 2005).

3. American College of Pediatricians, “Homosexual Parenting:  Is It Time for Change?”, 2004 http://www.acpeds.org/?CONTEXT=art&cat=10005&art=187&BISKIT=2684987796 (19 December 2005)