A biological male living as a transgender woman in Japan cannot be the legal parent to a child conceived with sperm frozen prior to their transition, a Japanese court ruled on Friday.
In Japan, transgender individuals are required to undergo surgery and sterilization before they can legally change their gender. The Japanese Supreme Court struck down a challenge to the 2004 law in 2019.
The transgender person at the center of the case had two children with the same biological female, one before transitioning and one after. The second child was conceived using frozen sperm after the parent’s transition.
According to Fox News, the Toyko family court ruled that only the child born prior to the transition surgery is legally the transgender person’s child. The transgender woman’s partner, who is a biological woman, could be recognized as the mother of both children because she gave birth to them.
Currently, Japan does not recognize same-sex marriage. A court ruled in June that the country’s ban on same-sex marriage does not violate its constitution.
In June, Townhall covered how Japan considered an application from the pharmaceutical company Linepharma International to provide medication intended to terminate pregnancies. However, the news came with the requirement that pregnant women seeking an abortion would need to provide written approval from their partner before obtaining the medication.
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“In principle we believe that spousal consent is necessary, even if an abortion is induced by an oral medication,” Yasuhiro Hashimoto, director of Japan’s health ministry’s Child and Family Policy Bureau, said. Only surgical abortions are available in Japan and many require consent from the woman’s partner.
In the United States, the Biden administration unveiled a website, ReproductiveRights.gov, after the Supreme Court’s historic Dobbs ruling. The website guides women to resources to obtain an abortion via the website AbortionFinder.org. From there, women, including those 15 and younger, are directed to resources to help minors obtain an abortion without parental consent or notification.
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