Tag Archives: Custody Battle

Australian MPs Look To Pass Law Allowing Lesbian Parents To Add Both There Names To Their Childrens Birth Certificate

Australia’s Lower House of Parliament passed the Family Relationships Amendment Bill last week, allowing names of both lesbian parents to appear on the birth certificate of their child.

The Bill was first introduced in the Upper House of the Parliament by Greens MLC Tammy Franks, where it was passed in June 2015.

Under the current law, only the name of the woman who gives birth to the child will appear on the birth certificate unless the lesbian couple has been together for three years or more.

The Family Relationships Amendment Bill was passed by a conscience vote of 29-12, cast by members of both the government and the opposition.

Though the Bill was supported by Attorney General John Rau, he suggested an amendment to it that would make the law applicable only to new cases.

However, this did not garner much support and the new law will be applied retrospectively, the News.com.au reported.

The Bill which is also known as “Tadgh’s law” was co-sponsored by Liberal MP David Pisoni in the Lower House. It seeks to end the three-year cohabitation rule for the same-sex couples, which still existed in South Australia.

Franks said;

The passage of this Bill has been a long time coming for children like Tadhg, who celebrated his first birthday without a birth certificate because Births, Deaths and Marriages demanded that his mothers prove they had lived together for three years before his conception. I thank the Premier for finally giving this Bill Government time, at last, to ensure its passage after it languished on the notice paper for many months last year.”

She added,

This Bill overcomes a very difficult situation where, federally these couples are recognised as ‘de facto’, but because of this discriminatory three-year cohabitation rule, both co-parents were not able to be listed on their child’s birth certificate here in South Australia. These families and these children deserved better – and at last children like Tadhg will have their birth certificates and have certainty.”

Before it becomes a law, the bill would be returned from the Lower House to be rubber stamped in the Upper House. The same-sex parents who were affected by the issue can then apply for the reissue of the birth certificates.


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Woman Wins Supreme Court Batlle After Ex Girlfriend Takes Their Daughter

A woman battling with her ex -partner for the return of her IVF-born daughter from Pakistan has been given hope by a Supreme Court ruling.

The girl’s biological mother and sole legal parent took her out of the UK in 2014 to Pakistan, three years after their relationship down.

The second woman then launched legal action and asked judges to order the youngster’s return to the UK.

Her efforts to force her former partner to bring the girl back to the UK had been blocked by the High Court and Court of Appeal.

A High Court judge and Court of Appeal judges concluded they did not have the jurisdiction to make such an order because the girl was not habitually resident in the UK when legal proceedings were launched.

However, Supreme Court justices have now overturned those rulings – deciding she had been resident and allowing the woman’s appeal.

The case will now return to the High Court where a judge will make decisions on what happens next.

Lawyers say the Supreme Court ruling will have implications in a number of areas.

Five Supreme Court justices had analysed evidence at a hearing in London in December.

A lawyer representing the second woman said a judge in England could now consider what was in the child’s best interests.

Maria Wright, who works for Freemans Solicitors, said:

“(She) feared the consequence of the High Court and Court of Appeal’s decisions was that (the child) would lose her relationship with her parent entirely The consequence of the Supreme Court’s decision is that the English court can properly consider what is in (the child’s) best interests and, if appropriate, order contact or (the child’s) return to England.

Further, the Supreme Court has brought welcome clarity to the law regarding a child’s habitual residence.”

The five Supreme Court justices, who ruled that the child could not be identified, allowed the second woman’s appeal by a three-two majority.

And the second woman said she was “relieved”.

In a statement released through Freemans Solicitors, she said:

“I am very relieved that the Supreme Court has accepted that my daughter has the right to have her future considered by a court in England,” “It has been a very long process to get to this result, and I am delighted that someone will now be able to look at what is actually in (the child’s) best interests.”

She added:

“I very much hope that (the child) and I will now be able to see each other again.”

Lawyers had told judges that the second woman would have been unable to persuade a court in Pakistan to consider the case “because of the strength of there of negative attitudes towards that sort of adult relationship”.

Judges heard that the second woman was a British woman of Indian ethnicity – and the girl’s biological mother a British woman of Pakistani ethnicity.

Unmarried Lesbian Has Her Appeal For Parental Custody Rejected By US Supreme Court

Days after a US Judge ruled in favour in a custody battle between married lesbian couple, the US Supreme Court has rejected an appeal from a woman who says Florida’s same-sex marriage ban deprived her as parental rights.

A lower court in Florida had ruled that Penny Willis had no parental right to the child conceived by a previous female partner.

The Supreme Court ruled on Monday that the lower ruling stands.

Willis had been in a relationship with Anne Marie Mobley for 11-years, but the couple never married.

After they got together they decided to raise a child.

Using donor sperm bought over the internet, Mobley gave birth to their child, but a year later the pair split up.

Despite the lower court having thrown out the case, Willis claims that her constitutional rights have been violated.

In her case she noted the Supreme Court’s 2015 ruling legalising same-sex marriage across all 50 US states.

 

US Judge Makes Landmark Ruling In Custody Battle Between Lesbian Couple

A landmark ruling has been made by a US judge, who ruled that the estrange wife of a woman who gave birth to their child has equal parental rights.

Karen and Lauren Poole were legally married in Maryland in 2013, and their child was born in 2014.

The former couple conceived using artificial insemination, and Karen gave birth to the baby.

They used the sperm of a mutual friend to conceive. He left the US, and has no legal claim as a parent to the child.

After the couple separated, Lauren Pole sort joint custody, and the judge in the custody case has ruled that both women have parental rights.

Speaking after the announcement, Lauren said:

It felt amazing … to finally hear what I already knew and what I already felt.”

She broke down in tears when the judge issued his opinion, but still may need to wait to have joint custody officially.

Karen had taken out a protective order against Lauren, which is to expire in a month.

Judge Frucci said he intended to allow Lauren visitation rights, but that he would wait until the end of this month in order to attorney for the baby time to weigh in.

The couple’s attorneys said they thought the ruling, the first of its kind in Virginia, could set a precedent.