(Little Rock, Arkansas) Arkansas Gov. Mike Beebe (D) says he is now reconsidering his support for a blanket ban on unmarried couples serving as foster parents.

“I’m not backing away from the ultimate test, which is still what’s in the best interest of the child,” Beebe told The Associated Press. “Now the question then becomes: Is the best interest of the child in foster care best handled by a blanket policy prohibiting it or by a case-by-case situation? Particularly in the light of the fact that we’ve got a problem with the number of foster families.”

A socially conservative group collected enough signatures to have place a referendum before voters in November that would force lawmakers to enact a ban on all unmarried couples from fostering children.

The legislature drew the wrath of the Arkansas Family Council for dead-ending similar legislation in the past. The Family Council is the same group that spearheaded Arkansas’ constitutional ban on same-sex marriage.

The fostering legislation failed after Beebe suggested that there were constitutional problems with the bill, although he would not say if he intended to veto it if it were passed.

Although the ballot measure includes all unmarried couples, it is seen as an attempt to specifically ban gays from fostering.

Arkansas’s Child Welfare Agency Review Board had established a policy in 1999 that banned gay people from serving as foster parents, and the Arkansas Supreme Court struck it down after a seven-year legal battle between the state and the ACLU. 

Several state and national child welfare groups filed friend-of-the-court briefs urging the court to strike down the exclusion, because it worked against the best interests of foster children.

In its unanimous ruling, the court said testimony in the state’s appeal demonstrated that “the driving force behind adoption of the regulations was not to promote the health, safety and welfare of foster children but rather based upon the board’s views of morality and its bias against homosexuals.”

Last week, officials with the Department of Human Services heard testimony from advocates urging the state to drop its policy.

Arkansas Families First, the group fighting the measure, said Arkansas is unnecessarily limiting the number of good foster homes by prohibiting unmarried couples living together from taking in children.

In saying he is revisiting his support for the ban, Bebee carefully avoided the issue of gays fostering, instead focusing on what he called the “broad” implications of the measure and the high number of children in state care.

But the 13 former judges who oppose the ban noted in their statement Monday that the ban was aimed at banning gay and lesbian couples from becoming adoptive or foster parents.

In a joint statement, the judges said the proposal would limit their ability to choose the best home environment for children and said that child placement should be decided on a case-by-case basis.