France's medical ethics committee expresses 'reservations' over IVF for lesbians and single women

Emmanuel Macron risks invoking the wrath of French conservatives and Catholics as parliament starts debating on Tuesday a bill to legalise medical assisted pregnancies for lesbians and single women.

The French president has already warned MPs the debate could be explosive six years after a same-sex marriage law triggered months of mass protests. This is the centrist Macron government’s first major social reform.

Under current French law, only heterosexual couples have the right to use medically assisted procreation methods such as in vitro fertilisation, commonly known as IVF.

Lesbians and single women often travel over the border to Belgium or Spain to fertility clinics, paying thousands of euros for treatment, a situation they say is unfair.

The bill also is set to change the law for lesbian couples to write "mother and mother" instead of "mother and father” on the child's birth certificate.

Mr Macron said he was “favourable” to the change during his 2017 electoral campaign but has dragged his feet over introducing the legislation - aware of the surprisingly virulent backlash to the gay mariage law passed by his predecessor François Hollande in 2013.

Under the draft legislation, children conceived with donor sperm can gain access to the donor's identity when they turn 18. Under current French law, donors are guaranteed anonymity.

It also extends the right of women in their mid-thirties to freeze their eggs - a procedure currently available only to women undergoing treatment that could affect their fertility.

Supporters of the bill say France is way behind the curve compared to other Western nations, including Britain, which introduced such legislation in 2008. In the UK, the use of fertility treatment by same-sex couples and singles hit a record high in May.

Polls suggest a majority of French are for the changes, which were approved by a special parliamentary commission earlier this month.

However, last Saturday, France’s medical ethics committee issued surprise “reservations” over the proposed bill.

It said "the deliberate conception of a child depriving it of a father constitutes a major anthropological break that is not without risk for the psychological development and well-being of the child".

“The father figure,” it said,” remains a “founding stone of the child's personality”.

On Sunday, Agnès Buzyn, France’s health minister said that view was “outdated”.

"Today, a quarter of French families are single parent. Don't tell me that a quarter of French children who live and are born into these families are having difficulties in constructing (their personalities)."

But buoyed by the ethics committee’s opinion, around 20 conservative groups have called for a rally in Paris on October 6 against changes they say will "deprive children of their father".

The centre-Right Republicans party opposes the bill, as does far-Right National Rally leader Marine Le Pen. Xavier Breton, a Republicans MP, argued that in the name of equality between heterosexual and homosexual couples the government was "denying the difference" between men and women.

France’s Catholic Church has also called for action. The head of the French conference of Catholic bishops, Eric de Moulins-Beaufort argued it was the "duty" of concerned citizens to demonstrate against the bill.

Critics warn the measure could slide France closer to legalising surrogacy, a practice that has been legal in the UK since 2010.

The government has denied any plans to lift the ban on surrogacy and wants the new law adopted by next summer.