Lesbian couples to be registered as mothers on children’s birth certificates, High Court rules

Lesbian couples who have children through anonymous sperm donation will both be registered as mothers on the birth certificates, the High Court of Justice ruled unanimously on Thursday.

The panel of judges, headed by Acting Supreme Court President Uzi Fogelman, was responding to a petition submitted by nine lesbian couples who gave birth to children through anonymous sperm donation.

The opposition to this motion, presented by the Population Authority, claimed that birth certificates are intended to reflect biological parentage alone, a concept foreign today to modern democracies such as the US, which has permitted same-sex couples to both appear on birth certificates in most states for nearly a decade.

Judges rule against Population Authority's objection

The judges rejected the Population Authority’s position, which they said could harm the child’s welfare. Fogelman emphasized that since the legal state of affairs is that at the time of birth, the baby had two parents, excluding the non-biological parent from the birth certificate means a preference for the status of biological parentage over "legally established" parentage.

The decision stated that after regulating parental status, the parentage of both parents—the biological parent and the non-biological parent—is equal, which includes the same rights and obligations.

Therefore, it was decided that there is no reason to make the distinction on the birth certificate when, in practice, the two are equals as parents.

Another counter-argument was that there is an inherent difference between the parent-child connection between a biological parent and a non-biological parent. This claim, however, was shot down by Fogelman, who said that this type of messaging is unacceptable.