National Organization for Marriage board chairman John Eastman on Friday said comments he made to the Associated Press earlier this week “grossly misrepresents” his views on adoption.

Eastman’s remarks, in an article profiling the diversity of U.S. Supreme Court justices (which appears here on LGBTQ Nation), suggested that families with adopted children were “second best” to families consisting of biological children. Eastman’s reference was to Chief Justice John Roberts, who has adopted two children with his wife.

John Eastman

In a statement posted on NOM’s blog, Eastman called the AP report “false.”

“An article by the Associated Press … grossly misrepresents my views on adoption. I believe that couples who adopt children are heroes and do a great service to society, and to the children they adopt. I strongly believe, based on thousands of years of experience and countless social science studies, that children do best when raised by a mother and a father within the bounds of marriage.

“I commend all those couples who selflessly give of themselves to raise a child who, through no fault of her own, has been deprived of a mother and father. There is nothing ‘second best’ about adoption.”

In the article, Eastman was quoted by the AP as saying, “Certainly adoption in families headed, like Chief Roberts’ family is, by a heterosexual couple, is by far the second-best option.”

Eastman’s remarks come just two weeks before the U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments on the constitutionality of the federal Defense of Marriage Act and California’s ban on same-sex marriage.

Proponents of Proposition 8 have argued the that the historical traditions of heterosexual marriage is designed to foster procreation in society. The National Organization for Marriage was an early backer of the Prop 8 proponents.

Tags: Adoption, John Eastman, John Roberts, National Organization for Marriage (NOM), U.S. Supreme Court

Filed under: Newsmakers