By: Citizens TV Kenya
Italy’s highest court ruled Thursday that women in same-sex couples who become mothers through IVF have the right to be recognised on the birth certificate even if they are not the biological parent.
The ruling was hailed as “historic” by opposition parties in Italy, which is governed by self-declared “Christian mother” Giorgia Meloni.
The far-right leader has railed against the “LGBT lobby” and says she defends traditional family values in the majority-Catholic country.
The Constitutional Court in Rome “ruled as discriminatory the failure to recognise both mothers” on birth certificates, a decision which “effectively becomes law”, lawyer Michele Giarratano told AFP.
Those celebrating included Chiara Soldatini, who moved to Spain with her family last year after realising her rights were under threat.
“I am happy no one will now be able to challenge the fact our son is our son,” she told AFP.
While civil unions became legal in Italy in 2016, same-sex couples cannot access medically assisted reproduction, and the law did not account for children conceived abroad by mothers in same-sex relationships who then give birth in Italy.
Encouraged by several court rulings, local mayors have in recent years been registering both biological and non-biological parents on birth certificates.
But in 2023, Meloni’s interior minister ordered town halls to stop transcribing certificates of children born abroad through surrogacy.
In response, prosecutors across Italy began contesting birth certificates of children born abroad or in Italy to same-sex parents — whether through surrogacy or by other means.
Non-biological mothers risked losing access to their children if their partner died or the relationship broke down, as well as suffering day-to-day stresses such as not being able to take their child to a doctor without the other parent’s permission.