No more detour via adoption: Hubig for co-motherhood for female couples

Justice Minister Hubig sympathizes with a proposal by her predecessor in the "Ampel" coalition: In the future, two women who have a child should both be able to be registered as mothers immediately. Currently, this only applies to the pregnant woman. Another reform idea by Buschmann, however, is disappearing back into the drawer.

Federal Justice Minister Stefanie Hubig would like to make it possible for lesbian couples with children to have joint parenthood from the very beginning. "Personally, I can imagine that we could establish a provision in the law of parentage for joint motherhood for female couples," the SPD politician said in Berlin.

The current legal situation is that the partner of the woman who gives birth to the child must adopt the child to become the legal parent. "This route via the court-ordered adoption process is very arduous and places a burden on families," the minister criticized. Furthermore, this regulation could have dire consequences for the child if the mother dies during or shortly after birth: "Then the child may have no parent at all."

Traffic light reform was not implemented

The Federal Ministry of Justice already had concrete plans for co-motherhood in the fall of 2024. However, after the collapse of the traffic light coalition, these plans were not implemented. The coalition agreement between the CDU, CSU, and SPD does not provide for any changes to the law of parentage in this regard. In general, any reforms to family law will be "guided by the best interests of the child," it states only in rather general terms.

However, Hubig believes a change in this area makes sense, also with reference to pending cases regarding co-motherhood. "Several German courts consider the current law on parentage to be unconstitutional on this point," says the minister, who served as Minister of Education for Rhineland-Palatinate before moving to Berlin. She would like "to see us not wait until the Federal Constitutional Court sends us a request to do so before implementing meaningful reforms to family law."

No new "community of responsibility"

The minister, however, considers the notarized "community of responsibility," another proposal by liberal former Justice Minister Marco Buschmann, which was never implemented, to be dispensable. This was intended for people who are not in a romantic relationship but want to take responsibility for each other in everyday life. The FDP politician cited single parents who support each other or single senior citizens who live together in a shared apartment as examples.

"At first, this sounded contemporary to many," said Hubig. However, the idea was apparently not fully developed. Feedback from society and academia had shown that no one needed this new legal institution. The added value would have been symbolic at best.