Italy court makes 'historic' ruling for same-sex mothers

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.

The Constitutional Court ruled on Thursday that refusing to recognise women who assume parental responsibility for the child their partner carries "does not guarantee the best interests of the minor" and violates several articles in the constitution.

That included the child's right to a continuous relationship with each parent and with relatives from each parent's branch of the family, it said.

"This is a historic decision," said Giarratano, from Padua in northeastern Italy.

He represents 15 children in Padua, where an instruction by prosecutors to retroactively remove non-biological mothers from birth certificates turned the city into a symbol of the fight for same-sex parents' rights.

Elly Schlein, head of the biggest opposition party, the centre-left Democratic Party (PD), said the "historic" ruling was "a heavy political defeat" for a hard-right coalition government which has "used rainbow families as a political target".

Mother Soldatini, 48, said it "cannot just be the legal system which recognises these children have a right to a family, politicians must now take the necessary step" to protect the rights of all children with same-sex parents.

"I will only uncork the champagne when all those families with two dads can toast with me," she said.

Activists have warned of an erosion of civil rights since Meloni took office in 2022, including the extension last year of the country's ban on surrogacy to couples who seek it abroad -- a law which affects gay fathers in particular.

On Thursday, a court in Pesaro in northern Italy ruled in favour of the adoption of a child by his non-biological father, despite the child being conceived abroad via surrogacy.