Adoptions of children: Parliament must validate a bill to facilitate the process
Open adoption to unmarried couples or even lower the minimum age required for parents. These are the objectives defended by the LREM bill that Parliament is preparing to approve definitively this Tuesday, by a final vote of the deputies. The National Assembly, which has the last word, must validate at the end of the day the proposal of MP Monique Limon, which dates back to mid-2020 and is part of a series of societal markers at the end of Emmanuel Macron's five -year term. .
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 ", considers Coralie Dubost (LREM). Currently, only one member of the couple can adopt the child. 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.
The text also aims to improve the functioning of family councils, supervisory bodies of the wards of the State in the departments. The family council will only include one member selected for his skills in the medical, psychological or social field, instead of two child protection experts.
Discussions 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 given birth to adopt the child despite the opposition of the mother. This "tinkering" that can lead to "forced adoptions", according to the right, has displeased even the MoDem, an ally of LREM.
More than 10,000 approvals in progress
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. Finally, for more guarantees during an international adoption, support will be compulsory by an organization authorized for adoption or the French Adoption Agency (AFA).
Faced with associations in the sector who are struggling to be convinced, the Secretary of State for Children Adrien Taquet praises measures allowing "firmly and definitively to anchor adoption in the protection of children and in a modernity concerned with the good -being of all members of 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.