In Italy. The FT has the story:
Italy’s constitutional court has upheld a long-standing ban on single women undergoing treatment for in vitro fertilisation, dealing a big setback to many who aspire to have babies amid the country’s deepening demographic crisis. Under existing rules, only heterosexual married couples are eligible for IVF in Italy, including in private clinics. This has forced many women who are single or in a same-sex partnership to travel to Spain or the UK for fertility treatments, a much costlier and more complicated endeavour.
But the constitutional court, in a separate ruling on Thursday, delivered a major victory to women in same-sex partnerships who have had children through IVF abroad, often with one partner providing the egg and the other carrying the pregnancy. Until now, Italy has recognised only the birth mother as legal parent, denying the other partner any rights over their own genetic children, or forcing them to go through a lengthy adoption process. The court called such an approach unconstitutional and ruled that two women who undergo IVF together abroad, with each other’s consent, must both be recognised as the child’s legal parents.
“Under existing rules, only heterosexual married couples are eligible for IVF in Italy, including in private clinics. This has forced many women who are single or in a same-sex partnership to travel to Spain or the UK for fertility treatments, a much costlier and more complicated endeavour.”
— Kim Krawiec (@kimkrawiec.bsky.social) May 22, 2025 at 8:00 PM