Israel: Supreme Court authorizes surrogacy for same-sex couples

Same-sex couples are allowed to use surrogate mothers in Israel to have children, the Supreme Court ruled on Sunday, a move hailed by some as vital to equality but seen by conservatives as eroding family values.

Surrogacy restrictions (surrogacy) for same-sex couples and single men must be lifted within six months, the court said.

"We cannot accept the persistent and contrary to human rights prejudice of the existing surrogacy system," President Esther Hayut wrote in her decision.

A fight of more than ten years

This is the culmination of a fight of more than 10 years for its defenders. When it comes to gay rights, Israel is the best student in the Middle East. The Jewish state has several openly gay men in parliament, but until now surrogacy has been prohibited for same-sex couples and single men. The latter used surrogacy in countries such as India, Nepal, Thailand and the United States.

Surrogacy was legalized in Israel in 1996, but only for heterosexual couples and then for single women.

In 2010, homosexual couple Etai and Yoav Arad-Pinkas were the first to take the matter to court.

After a first failure, in 2015 they launched a petition with groups defending the rights of LGBTQ people (lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer).

Last year, the Supreme Court ordered lawmakers to end discrimination over surrogacy within 12 months, saying the exclusion of same-sex couples and single men was unconstitutional.

But ultra-Orthodox conservative lawmakers in Israel's parliament have thwarted a proposal to expand access to this procedure.

Frictions to be expected within the government coalition

Oz Parvin, head of the Israeli Gay Fathers Association, called the court's ruling on Sunday "unbelievable." With his partner, he himself had performed surrogacy in India nine years ago. Far-right MP Bezalel Smotrich of the opposition religious Zionism party told him the move was a sign of "the collapse of the Jewishness of the State of Israel." And Yaakov Litzman, of the "United Torah Judaism" party, that she "compromised the future of the Jewish people."

This decision is likely to cause friction within the new government coalition. This indeed includes the Meretz formation - of which President Nitzan Horowitz is openly gay - but also the conservative Islamist Raam, who described homosexuals as "deviants". “Equality, finally!” Tweeted Nitzan Horowitz, Minister of Health, assuring that his ministry would prepare to receive surrogacy requests from men.