Text adopted. Parliament definitively approved, on Tuesday February 8, a bill LREM aimed at opening up adoption to unmarried couples, lowering the minimum age required for parents and facilitating the adoption of neglected children: Presented as a “progress text”, this societal reform was largely voted by the National Assembly, which had the last word in front of the Senate. The right-wing majority in the upper house had criticized a text which, in its view, goes against the objective of “give a family to a child, not the other way around”.
Flagship measure, the opening of full adoption to PACS or cohabiting couples should put an end to “discrimination relating to union rules or same-sex parenting”, defended LREM MP Coralie Dubost. Marriage is not “not a guarantee of stability” for children, also justified the initiator of the text, Monique Limon. Currently, only one member of the couple can adopt the child. LR deputies opposed this development, judging that marriage is “the most protective framework”.
The bill also lowers the minimum age required for each adopter, from 28 to 26 years. And the minimum duration of community life is reduced from two to one year. One or other of these conditions is required to apply for accreditation. In addition, the biological parents entrusting their child will have to consent to his becoming a pupil of the State, and thus that he can be adopted. This lack of express consent to adoption has been criticized by the right, but also part of the left as well as associations in the sector.
Another provision, hotly contested, concerns couples of women who have had recourse to medically assisted procreation (PMA) abroad and have since been separated. The text will open the possibility for the woman who has not given birth to adopt the child despite the opposition of the mother. This “do-it-yourself” could lead to “forced adoptions”, according to the right and UDI deputies. This provision has displeased even the MoDem, an ally of LREM.
The LREM text also aims to improve the functioning of family councils, supervisory bodies for state wards in the departments. The family council will only include one competent member in the medical, psychological or social field, instead of two experts in child protection, which worries the association Childhood and Adoptive Families. On the other hand, a specialist in the fight against discrimination must enter.
Faced with associations in the sector who are also struggling to be convinced, the Secretary of State for Children, Adrien Taquet, once again praised measures allowing “to anchor adoption in the protection of children” and “in a modernity that gives more space to family models” diverse in our society.
In France, the number of families waiting to finalize their adoption project is much higher than the adoptions carried out each year. More than 10,000 approvals to adopt are in progress. In 2019, 706 wards of the State were adopted, to which were added 421 children adopted abroad.