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A Kansas man is fighting against the state for being forced to pay child support after he donated his sperm.

William Marotta offered his sperm to a lesbian couple in 2009 after responding to their Craigslist ad requesting a donor.

The two women raising the three-year-old little girl, Angela Bauer and Jennifer Schreiner later broke up in 2010 and applied for state services. The Kansas Department for Children and Families demanded that the couple provide the donor’s information or they would withhold health services from their child.  The department later filed a child-support claim against Marotta.

The former couple is fully backing their donor’s plea to avoid paying child support.

“This was a wonderful opportunity with a guy with an admirable, giving character who wanted nothing more than to help us have a child,” Bauer said. “I feel like the state of Kansas has made a mess out of the situation.”

Marotta did not receive payment for his donation but he did sign a written agreement relinquishing his parental rights to Bauer and Schreiner saying he was not responsible “for any child support payments demanded of him by any other person or entity, public or private … regardless of the circumstances or said demand.”

But, the state refuses to uphold their agreement because a licensed doctor did not perform the insemination.

The couple also has seven other children, many of which they’ve adopted.

Marotta’s name was not included on the child’s birth certificate and he had little to no contact with the child.

The couple filed to adopt their daughter separately because the state does not recognize same-sex marriages. The state also cannot accept child support from same-sex parents.

“More and more gays and lesbians are adopting and reproducing, and this, to me, is a step backward,” said Bauer, who formerly supported the family financially but is no longer able to work due to a “serious illness.” “I think a lot of progressive movement is happening currently in the world as far as gays and lesbians go. Maybe this is Kansas’ stand against some of that.”