The Council says yes to two mothers, what changes for rainbow families

“The prohibition for the intentional mother to recognize as her own a child born in Italy from medically assisted procreation, legitimately practiced abroad” : this was decided yesterday by the Constitutional Court with a historic ruling for rainbow families . More precisely, the Court wrote in a note, article 8 of law number 40/2004 did not guarantee “ the best interest of the minor” and violated three articles of the Constitution, 2, 3 and 30.

It all started with the registration by the mayor of Camaiore of the second child of a couple of women, born after a PMA program carried out abroad. The Public Prosecutor's Office of Lucca had challenged the registration act, requesting its cancellation, as it conflicted with a circular from the Ministry of the Interior from 2023. The Court of Lucca instead requested the intervention of the Constitutional Court. "Excited, moved, happy. We didn't think we would be the first" : Glenda Giovannardi and Isabella Passaglia, married and mothers of a three-year-old girl and a two-year-old boy, born on April 3, 2023 in Lido di Camaiore after choosing assisted procreation in Barcelona, ​​and a month after the circular from Minister Piantedosi. “ We had some fears ,” Isabella explained , “from a health point of view, because I am the intended mother and if I am the only one with the baby I am not recognized by the health personnel; and at the inheritance level, because in the event that the biological mother were to pass away, but also in the event that the couple were to decide to separate. We have never encountered any hostility, but even simply picking up my son from school could have represented a problem.”

“The historic ruling of the Constitutional Court confirms what we have been saying for some time: emotional and family ties cannot be erased by decree or ideological crusades ”: this is what the secretary of the Democratic Party, Elly Schlein , and the person responsible for Rights in the Democratic Party secretariat, Alessandro Zan , wrote in a note. The same principle established by the Court was expressed in a proposed law by the +Europa deputy, Riccardo Magi, who, in recalling it, added: “ we were right when we accused the Meloni Government and Minister Piantedosi of waging war on children, punishing them to hit their mothers” . The Minister for Family, Birth and Equal Opportunities disagrees: "the child's interest in having two parental figures recognized is established, in the ruling on 'two mothers', completely disregarding the biological foundations of reproduction and generation, as if the planned exclusion and cancellation of the father figure were not in turn a disvalue and a choice contrary to the best interests of the minor".

The Constitutional Court also yesterday issued another decision, again on law 40/2004, which deemed the legislative choice of not allowing single women to access medically assisted procreation reasonable (editor Navarretta). According to the Court, in the current regulatory framework , "not allowing women to access assisted procreation alone still finds justification in the precautionary principle for the protection of future children" . It is, in fact, in their interest that the legislator deemed " not to endorse a parental project that leads to the conception of a child in a context that, at least a priori, excludes the figure of the father" . But be careful: the Constitutional Court does not at all prevent a law from extending the use of assisted procreation to singles. In fact, the judges' statement reads: "the Court reiterated, in line with its precedents, that there are no constitutional obstacles to a possible extension, by the legislator, of access to medically assisted procreation to family units other than those currently indicated, and specifically to single-parent families".

Filomena Gallo, Secretary of the Coscioni Association, expressed her opinion on this second decision: “ We acknowledge that the Constitutional Court has not accepted the question of constitutional legitimacy raised by the Florence court. This is a missed opportunity to overcome discrimination against single women in access to PMA. On this issue too, as on the end of life, the ball is now in Parliament’s court. Today (yesterday, ed.) we are therefore relaunching the petition to the legislator to intervene on law 40 by modifying article 5 to allow access to assisted fertilization techniques to those who need them to start a family”. "I am sorry for the failure to take up the issue. It is a missed opportunity to clearly state that the desire for parenthood cannot be filtered by prejudices, nor conditioned by outdated patterns. Now it is up to Parliament to demonstrate whether it is capable of listening to reality, that made up of women who consciously choose to become mothers, who build relationships based on love and responsibility, even outside the perimeter of the traditional family, " commented Evita, a 40-year-old from Turin, appellant in the proceedings before the Court of Florence that had referred the issue to the Constitutional Court.

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Angela Star