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

Sculptures are seen atop the Constitutional Court building near the Quirinale presidential palace in Rome, Italy, on Saturday, April 27, 2013. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia, File)

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 can’t be restricted to the biological mother alone in families with same-sex parents.

The court ruled that it was unconstitutional for city registrars 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 of her partner and assumed parental responsibilities.

Advocates for 2SLGBTQ+ rejoiced at the ruling, saying it was a “historic day for civil rights in Italy.”

“At last what we have been saying all along is being recognized: boys and girls have the right to see both parents recognized, from birth, even when they are two mothers,” Rainbow Families said in a statement.

The group said the ruling served as a reminder to politicians that constitutionally, it’s “no longer possible to continue pretending that we do not exist.”

The association Pro Life and Family denounced the ruling as illogical and meant thousands of children born to same-sex parents were launched into “an existential joke.”

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 doesn’t 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.

By Nicole Winfield