The French Parliament has approved a bill that will allow single women and two-woman couples to use assisted reproductive technologies.
The National Assembly passed the bill on Tuesday, 326 votes to 115, after a two-year debate, reports the BBC. The bill extends fertility treatments, including assisted insemination and in vitro fertilization, to all women under 43. It requires that when children conceived with donor sperm reach adulthood, they are allowed to learn the donor’s identity.
Other European countries with similar provisions are EU members Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, and Sweden, plus Iceland, Norway, and the U.K. outside the EU.
The French legislation also allows women in their 30s to freeze their eggs, a procedure formerly available only to those undergoing medical treatment that could damage their fertility, adds the Guardian. It does not, however, legalize surrogacy—and as ILGA-Europe, an LGBTQ advocacy organization, tweeted yesterday, it “fails to address the rights of trans or intersex people, leaving more work to do.”
Fertility treatment is free for anyone covered under France’s national health insurance.
Health Minister Olivier Véran told the BBC that “he hoped the first children would be conceived by the end of 2021,” but there could be delays if right-wing lawmakers appeal the legislation to France’s Constitutional Council.
Congratulations to all of those who worked to enact this legislation, and to all the families who will benefit from it.