The Senate with a right-wing majority widely adopted, on the night of Thursday, October 21, after having seriously groomed it, a bill aimed
at "facilitating and securing the adoption"
, the flagship measure of which is the opening of the adoption to unmarried couples.
Voted at first reading by the National Assembly last November, this text carried by the LREM deputy Monique Limon and supported by the government, was deemed
"disappointing"
by the LR rapporteur of the Senate Muriel Jourda, for whom if
"the intention is commendable ”
,
“ the real solution is elsewhere ”
.
Read alsoAdoption: a very dangerous reform for many concerned parents
In 2019, only 706 state wards (out of 3,248) were adopted, plus 421 children adopted abroad. Figures
"to be compared"
, according to the rapporteur, with the
"very high" number
of approvals (more than 10,000 valid). For the Secretary of State for Children and Families Adrien Taquet, the measures in the text
"allow adoption to be firmly and definitively anchored in child protection"
.
"It is part of a dynamic of family liberalization
,
"
said Jean-Pierre Decool (Independents).
The left welcomed the opening of full adoption to PACS and cohabiting couples, which gave rise to
"a rich debate"
in committee.
Muriel Jourda, hostile to this extension, thus argued that marriage
"brings legal certainty"
for the child, in particular in the event of separation.
The senators maintained the conditions in force for the minimum age of adopters (28 years) and the minimum duration of joint life (2 years), which the deputies had lowered (26 years and one year).
Serious grooming
The senators also carried out a serious grooming of other provisions of the text, which the government tried unsuccessfully to restore.
In particular, a transitional measure has been removed to allow, for couples of women who have had recourse to medically assisted procreation (MAP) abroad and separated since, that the woman who has not given birth can adopt the child despite the opposition of the one who gave birth.
The government had committed to this measure during the discussion of the bioethics law which now authorizes female couples to resort to assisted reproduction in France.
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Senators also opposed the measure aimed at limiting the activity of authorized adoption bodies (OAAs) to international adoptions or even the change in the composition of family councils. Among the other measures voted by the Senate: the introduction of a maximum age difference of 50 years between the adopter and the adoptee and the obligation for candidates for adoption to follow a preparation prior to the issue of approval. For Laurence Harribey (PS), the text
"seems to guarantee the essential contributions desired by the authors, but also to alleviate measures which could pose a problem on the legal level"
.
Deputies and senators will now try to agree on a common version, failing which the National Assembly will have the last word.