OOpen adoption to unmarried couples, lower the minimum age required for parents, and also facilitate the adoption of neglected children: Parliament definitively approved on Tuesday, by a final vote of deputies, a proposed LREM law intended as a “progress text”. The National Assembly, which has the last word, voted, by 96 votes against 15, and 4 abstentions, the proposal of the deputy Monique Limon, which dates back to mid-2020 and is part of a series of societal markers in this end of Emmanuel Macron’s five-year term.
Deputies and senators had not reached an agreement: the right dominating the upper house considers that the text goes against the objective of “giving a family to a child, and not the reverse”. Faced with associations in the sector which are also struggling to be convinced, the Secretary of State for Children Adrien Taquet again praised measures on Tuesday allowing “to anchor adoption in the protection of children” and “in a modernity which gives more room to diverse family models » in our society. The number of families waiting to make their adoption plan a reality is far greater than the adoptions carried out each year. More than 10,000 approvals to adopt are in progress. In 2019, 706 state wards (out of 3,248) were adopted, to which were added 421 children adopted abroad. Flagship measure, the opening of full adoption to PACS couples or cohabitants must put an end to “discrimination relating to the rules of union or homoparenthood”, according to Coralie Dubost (LREM).
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Marriage is “not a guarantee of stability” for children, also justifies 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.
Lively debates
Until the final reading, the exchanges were lively on a provision which will open up the possibility, for couples of women who have had recourse to medically assisted procreation (PMA) abroad and since separated, to the woman who has not not given birth to adopt the child despite the opposition of the mother. The measure is transitional since the bioethics law of 2021 settles the question by opening PMA to female couples in France. This “tinkering” that could lead to “forced adoptions”, according to the right and UDI deputies, has displeased even the MoDem, an ally of LREM. The collective La Manif pour tous fears that the recognition of children born by gestational surrogacy (GPA) abroad is “ambushed” in the bill, which will allow the adoption of the child of the PACS partner or cohabitant when there is legally established filiation only with regard to the latter. Fabien Di Filippo (LR) criticized the “hypocrisy” of the majority in this area.
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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 member competent in the medical, psychological or social field, instead of two child protection experts, which worries the Enfance et famille d’adoption (EFA) association. . On the other hand, a specialist in the fight against discrimination must enter.
Another point of tension: the ban on organizations authorized for adoption (OAA) to collect children in France to find them a family – they are already turned to international adoptions. The bill also intends to clarify certain rules: the biological parents entrusting their child will have to consent to it becoming a pupil of the State, and thus that it can be adopted – the absence of express consent to adoption is criticized by the right, some on the left as well as by associations in the sector. Finally, for more guarantees during an international adoption, support will be compulsory by an organization authorized for adoption or the French Adoption Agency (AFA). Individual international adoption will thus be prohibited.
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