Female couples now get equal rights in birth registration

Female couples can celebrate equal rights as amendments to the way births are registered will come into force this month.

Female civil partners receiving fertility treatment will now get the same rights as heterosexual married couples when it comes to registering the birth of their child conceived through fertility treatment.

Female couples not in a civil partnership but receiving fertility treatment may also be registered as parents in the same way as unmarried heterosexual couples.

From Tuesday 1 September 2009, the Registration of Births and Deaths Regulations 1987 will be changed to allow this.

Before this change, the mother’s female partner could not be registered as a parent.

The changes come following new parenthood provisions contained in the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008.

The new regulations will only apply to female couples who have received fertility treatment on or after April 6 2009.

Stonewall’s Head of Policy and Research Ruth Hunt said:”It is vital that we afford equality wherever we can in society, especially as family circumstances continue to change. This is an important step forward in that process.”

“Now lesbian couples in the UK who make a considered decision to start a loving family will finally be afforded equal access to services they help fund as taxpayers.”