Overview

• On July 10, Justice Minister Stefanie Hubig publicly backed a law change to allow lesbian couples to register two legal mothers at the time of a child’s birth.
• Under existing rules the non-birthing partner must adopt the child via a court procedure that Hubig calls cumbersome and liable to leave a child without a parent if the birth mother dies.
• Several German courts and the European Court of Human Rights have flagged the current adoption requirement as potentially unconstitutional in co-mother cases.
• The co-motherhood reform drafts from autumn 2024 were not included in the new coalition agreement and CDU/CSU figures warn that parentage cannot be fully severed from biology.
• The Justice Ministry is circulating a formal draft among cabinet members and state governments ahead of planned parliamentary debates.