Paris (AP) — A French court has authorized four lesbian women to adopt children born to their wives abroad through artificial insemination.
While France has legalized gay marriage and adoption, only heterosexual couples are allowed to have medically assisted fertilization. Supporters of gay rights praised the ruling on April 16, which allows these children to have two legal parents.
The Versailles appeals court overturned a ruling delivered by a lower court a year ago, according to the lawyer for one of the four couples. The lower court had said the birth mother in that case had committed fraud by having artificial insemination in Belgium.
France’s highest court later ruled that seeking fertilization abroad is “not an obstacle” to allowing lesbian women to adopt the children of their partners.
