Italy's court says 2 mothers can register as parents on birth certificates

Italy’s Constitutional Court has ruled that two women can register as parents of a child on a birth certificate, saying recognition of parental rights cannot be restricted to the biological mother in families with same-sex parents

ROME -- Italy’s Constitutional Court on Thursday ruled that two women can register as parents of a child on a birth certificate, saying recognition of parental rights cannot be restricted to the biological mother in families with same-sex parents.

Advocates for LGBTQ+ rejoiced at the ruling, while the association Pro Life and Family denounced it as sending thousands of children born to same-sex parents into “an existential joke.”

The court ruled that it was unconstitutional for city registers to deprive children born to same sex-parents of recognition by both the biological mother and the woman who consented to the medically assisted pregnancy and assumed parental responsibilities.

In recent years, some city registrars had begun to record only the name of the biological mother on birth certificates, and not the name of her partner. In order to have legal rights and responsibility over the child, the non-biological mother then had to “adopt” the child.

A 2004 law had provided for such limited parental recognition. But thanks to an Interior Ministry circular in 2023, the restrictions were being enforced anew as part of the policy of the far-right-led government of Premier Giorgia Meloni to crack down on surrogacy and promote traditional family values.

The ruling does not address the legality of medically assisted procreation: Italy has strong restrictions on IVF and has had a ban on surrogacy since 2004. Last year Italy expanded the ban to criminalize Italians who go abroad to have children through surrogacy.

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