Padua, the Prosecutor’s Office does not cancel the registrations of the children of rainbow families: let the Constitutional Court decide

Since last March the Prosecutor’s Office of Padua had requested the annulment of the birth certificates of 37 children of rainbow families, following the circular from the Ministry of the Interior. These are the children of lesbian couples who had the names of both mothers registered immediately at the time of birth. The request was to cancel the name of one of the two women, removing, from a legal point of view, one of the parents and forcing families to resort to the adoption procedure in particular cases. The first hearings on the issue saw a turning point.

The Prosecutor’s Office, whose leadership has changed, has asked the Court of Padua to raise the question of legitimacy before the Constitutional Court. The Council will have to evaluate whether the exclusion of lesbian couples and their children from the rules regulating access to heterologous assisted fertilization violates their fundamental rights.

The request is one made some time ago by the association’s lawyers Lenford Network: apply also to female couples the part of law 40 on consent to the heterologist, giving consent to the use by one’s wife or partner of a donor’s sperm makes one co-parents of the child. This point would overcome the issue of registration and the need for adoption in particular cases.

Already in January 2021 a request arrived from the Constitutional Court to fill the legislative gap on the recognition of the children of same-sex couples because this absence violated the fundamental rights of children. The Prosecutor’s Office expressed the request to the Court and now it is up to the Court to decide whether to turn to the Constitutional Court to raise the question of legitimacy.