Opinion ID: 2576319
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Promoting Parental Responsibility and Procreation

Text: Limon also contends that there is no rational connection between the classification and the Court of Appeals' parental responsibility and procreation justifications. The Court of Appeals stated that the legislature might have determined that lengthy incarceration of a young adult offender who has become a parent as a result of a heterosexual relationship with a minor would be counterproductive to that young adult's duty to support his or her child. But, because same-sex relationships do not lead to unplanned pregnancies, the need to release a same-sex offender from incarceration is absent. Limon argues this justification and Judge Green's findings regarding the State's interest in relationships which lead to procreation make no sense since the State's interest is to discourage teen pregnancies, not encourage them. Further, the statute does not reduce penalties solely for conduct that results in pregnancy, but also for heterosexual intercourse which does not result in pregnancy, i.e., sodomy and lewd contact. Again, the relationship between the objective and the classification is so strained that we cannot conclude it is rational.