In France, on June 29, the law on bioethics was definitively approved which, among other things, also opens access to assisted fertilization to single women and those in homosexual couples, hitherto reserved for married heterosexuals with infertility problems.
Already supported by François Hollande during his presidential campaign in 2012, the following year the measure was then shelved during the heated debate for the law on equalitarian marriage as a compromise with the more conservative part of parliament and public opinion. Later Emmanuel Macron included it in his electoral program and, after a long parliamentary process, it was included in the new law on bioethics, of which it was the most discussed aspect.
The law, adopted by a large majority, extends to all women the possibility of resorting to assisted fertilization up to the age of 43. The procedure will be reimbursed by the national health system, as is the case today for heterosexual couples with infertility problems. To respect the right of every child to know their biological father, the law allows all people conceived with a sperm donation to access, once they reach the age of majority, the identity of the donor or, if they prefer, only the your non-identifying information, such as the reason for the donation, your physical characteristics or your medical history.
For lesbian couples there is a special filiation mechanism, in which the two women will have to carry out a joint and anticipated maternity recognition. In this way both mothers of the baby will be automatically recognized from the moment of delivery and will appear regularly on his birth certificate. The law maintains in force the prohibition of access to assisted fertilization for transgender people and that of access to gestation for others.
Le Monde defines it as “the epilogue of years of heated debates”, born since the approval of the law on equalitarian marriage included the right for same-sex couples to adopt children but not the right for lesbian couples to resort to fertilization techniques. assisted. “For the LGBT + associations”, explains the newspaper, “it is the conclusion of a long battle and, despite the ‘imperfections’ of the final text, today relief prevails, as the leaders of the associations recognize in chorus”.
Free to choose
In the same hours in which the French parliament was adopting the new law on bioethics, also on June 29 the Spanish government approved a bill that aims to guarantee the real and effective equality of transgender people and strengthen the protection of LGBT + rights. A measure that, if it is turned into law, will allow anyone over the age of 14 to request the reassignment of sex and name to the registry without the need for medical documentation.
The text, which is the result of a close tug-of-war between the political forces of the majority coalition – the Socialist Party (PSOE) and Podemos – would abolish the current legislation which, in order to obtain the change of sex on identity documents, requires a diagnosis of gender dysphoria and mandatory hormone treatment.
According to the new provisions, however, only children between the ages of 12 and 14 would be required to obtain judicial authorization, while people between the ages of 14 and 16 would need parental consent (or legal guardian) and those over 16 would not have need no permission. That is to say that, from the age of 16 onwards, in Spain one could change the name and sex of the registry office simply by one’s own will, without any need for hormonal treatment or even less surgery and consequent sterilization.
In addition to the new mechanism for gender reassignment, the so-called “ley trans” would open access to assisted reproduction to women in homosexual couples and to “trans people who can get pregnant”; he would recognize both mothers from birth, even if they are not married; it would increase the protection of the rights of intersex people; it would ban conversion therapies for LGBT + people and eventually include the theme of diversity in school curricula.
But it is above all the question of gender self-determination that has caused the most resistance, both within the majority coalition and among some historical Spanish feminists. “In particular”, explains the newspaper La Vanguardia, “a part of the feminist movement believes that this law represents a threat to women’s rights, because it risks canceling the notion of biological sex from the registry office, and therefore also that of a woman, thus nullifying any feminist claim ”.
Before arriving at the congress of deputies, the law will have to go through a series of consultative bodies and the debate in parliament promises to be very tough. The text risks being heavily modified, but there is also the possibility instead that, just as happened with the 2005 egalitarian marriage law, Spain will return to take a step forward on civil rights that would confirm it as one of the countries. more advanced in terms of protection of the lgbt + community.
Regardless of what final form the ley trans, the Spanish and French debates once again underline Italy’s chronic backwardness in terms of civil rights. Both France and Spain have in fact introduced laws against homotransphobia in their legal systems for several years – France in 2003, with the center-right president Jaques Chirac, and Spain even in 1995 – and the inclusion of homotransphobia among the crimes hate is a well established principle in their societies.
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