Because the legal basis forbids a lesbian couple to be mothers together, two Berlin women are suing. The Society for Freedom Rights calls the right of descent “out of date”. There could be a bill this year.
A lesbian couple from Berlin is suing in Karlsruhe because, according to the current legal situation, both women cannot be registered as parents of their child. The right of descent has fallen out of time and urgently needs to be reformed, said the Society for Freedom Rights (GFF). The GFF and the Nodoption initiative for those affected support the constitutional complaint, which is to be submitted to the Federal Constitutional Court later today.
According to the legal definition, the mother of a child is the woman who gave birth to it. The father is generally the man who is married to the mother at the time of the birth. The plaintiffs’ child, born in March 2020, was conceived with a private sperm donation. Legally, it has only one mother. The partner who did not carry the child to term could at best adopt it. In the GFF announcement, she calls this “an impertinence and not an alternative to parenthood from birth”. “We decided together for our child, we share the responsibility and we are a family like any other.”
The GFF also criticizes that affected children are less well protected during the lengthy adoption process. The traffic light government is working on a reform of family law. The coalition agreement states: “If a child is born into a marriage between two women, both are automatically the legal mothers of the child, unless otherwise agreed.”
Justice Minister Marco Buschmann was confident in July that there could be a bill this year. But he had also said that it should first be about “the uncomplicated cases”. In other constellations, there is still a need for discussion in the federal government. GFF and Nodoption therefore fear that, for example, a friend’s or acquaintance’s sperm donation may not be included. The organizations said that people without a gender entry or with the entry “diverse” were also threatened with being left out.
According to a spokesman, the Constitutional Court already has three cases pending on the issue. In each of these cases, civil courts in Karlsruhe intervened because they consider the current legal regulation to be unconstitutional. When there will be a decision is not yet foreseeable, it said.
