WATCH: Kansas Sues Sperm Donor for Child Support

A man who donated sperm to help a lesbian couple conceive found himself on the hook for thousands of dollars in child support payments, sought not by the parents, but by the state of Kansas.

BY Sunnivie Brydum

January 04 2013 4:39 PM ET

Jennifer Schreiner, left, with her former partner and biological mother to her child, Angela Bauer.

A Kansas man who donated his sperm to help a lesbian couple conceive a child four years ago is now being sued by the state for more than $6,000 in child support, reports NBC's Today.

William Morotta answered a Craigslist ad in 2009 seeking a sperm donor to help Angela Bauer and her then-partner, Jennifer Schreiner, conceive a child through artificial insemination. The women offered $50 in compensation for the donation, but Morotta refused payment. The lesbian couple and Morotta drafted a written agreement intended to sever Morotta's parental rights, but the state alleges that the document is not binding because the trio did not involve a doctor in the procedure.

Neither Bauer, the child's biological mother, nor her former partner are seeking payment from Morotta. Rather, the state of Kansas is seeking reimbursement for financial assistance it offered Bauer when Schreiner fell ill. State officials are citing a Kansas law that says a sperm donor is not legally responsible for a child only if a doctor performs the insemination procedure.

"I don't fault the state for this," Cory Whelan of the New York-based American Fertility Association told the Associated Press. "I don't think this is a homophobic issue. I think this is a financially driven issue."

Watch Today's report below.

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