{"id":50990,"date":"2023-07-04T23:04:12","date_gmt":"2023-07-04T23:04:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/concourt-childrens-act-discriminates-against-unmarried-parents-who-conceive-through-ivf"},"modified":"2023-07-05T00:11:44","modified_gmt":"2023-07-05T00:11:44","slug":"concourt-childrens-act-discriminates-against-unmarried-parents-who-conceive-through-ivf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/concourt-childrens-act-discriminates-against-unmarried-parents-who-conceive-through-ivf","title":{"rendered":"ConCourt: Children’s Act discriminates against unmarried parents who conceive through IVF"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – South-Africa. <\/strong><\/span>The Constitutional Court has confirmed a Gauteng High Court ruling that Section 40 of the Children’s Act is unjustifiably discriminatory on the basis of marital status and sexual orientation.<\/p>\n

A court bid launched by a lesbian couple argued that the act does not give equal parental responsibilities and rights in relation to their child who was conceived through in vitro fertilisation (IVF).<\/p>\n

This is because the act, as it currently reads, does not contain the words “permanent life partner” after “spouse” and “husband”.<\/p>\n

The legal bid cited the ministers of social development, justice and constitutional development as respondents.<\/p>\n

According to court documents, the couple’s legal action stemmed from their concern that while married spouses automatically acquire parental responsibilities and rights for children conceived from artificial fertilisation regardless of whether the sperm donor was one of the spouses or not, the same was not true for unmarried couples.<\/p>\n

Under the act, only the birth mother acquires automatic parental rights and responsibilities when a child is conceived through artificial fertilisation with the other spouse having to approach the Children’s Court to acquire similar rights.<\/p>\n

In October 2022, the University of Pretoria-based Centre for Child Law joined the matter as friends of the court.<\/p>\n

It said in a statement:<\/p>\n

The Constitutional Court amendment to the act to include “permanent life partner”, will take effect retrospectively from 1 July 2007.<\/p>\n

However, its application is suspended for 24 months to allow Parliament an opportunity to fix the constitutional deficiency.<\/p>\n

The Centre for Child Law hailed the court ruling, saying it provides clarity regarding the parental responsibilities and rights of unmarried couples to children conceived artificially.<\/p>\n

“Clear determination of parenthood has a major impact on the exercise of custody, maintenance and guardianship of a child,” it said.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About South-Africa<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – South-Africa. The Constitutional Court has confirmed a Gauteng High Court ruling that Section 40 of the Children’s Act is unjustifiably discriminatory on the basis of marital status and sexual orientation. A court bid launched by a lesbian couple argued that the act does not give equal parental responsibilities and rights in relation to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":50988,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,12],"tags":[274,315,5738,663,2372,275],"class_list":["post-50990","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-policy","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-south-africa","tag-centre-for-child-law","tag-constitutional-court","tag-crime-and-courts","tag-south-africa-2"],"yoast_head":"\nConCourt: Children's Act discriminates against unmarried parents who conceive through IVF - South Africa<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Constitutional Court has confirmed a Gauteng High Court ruling that Section 40 of the Children's Act is unjustifiabl ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/concourt-childrens-act-discriminates-against-unmarried-parents-who-conceive-through-ivf\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"ConCourt: Children's Act discriminates against unmarried parents who conceive through IVF\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Constitutional Court has confirmed a Gauteng High Court ruling that Section 40 of the Children's Act is unjustifiabl ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/concourt-childrens-act-discriminates-against-unmarried-parents-who-conceive-through-ivf\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"South Africa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-07-04T23:04:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-07-05T00:11:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2023\/07\/sm_1688499621.849733.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"736\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/concourt-childrens-act-discriminates-against-unmarried-parents-who-conceive-through-ivf#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/concourt-childrens-act-discriminates-against-unmarried-parents-who-conceive-through-ivf\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"ConCourt: Children’s Act discriminates against unmarried parents who conceive through IVF\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-07-04T23:04:12+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-07-05T00:11:44+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/concourt-childrens-act-discriminates-against-unmarried-parents-who-conceive-through-ivf\"},\"wordCount\":313,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/concourt-childrens-act-discriminates-against-unmarried-parents-who-conceive-through-ivf#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2023\/07\/sm_1688499621.849733.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-South-Africa\",\"centre for child law\",\"constitutional court\",\"crime and courts\",\"South-Africa\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/concourt-childrens-act-discriminates-against-unmarried-parents-who-conceive-through-ivf#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/concourt-childrens-act-discriminates-against-unmarried-parents-who-conceive-through-ivf\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/concourt-childrens-act-discriminates-against-unmarried-parents-who-conceive-through-ivf\",\"name\":\"ConCourt: Children's Act discriminates against unmarried parents who conceive through IVF - South Africa\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/concourt-childrens-act-discriminates-against-unmarried-parents-who-conceive-through-ivf#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/concourt-childrens-act-discriminates-against-unmarried-parents-who-conceive-through-ivf#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2023\/07\/sm_1688499621.849733.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-07-04T23:04:12+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-07-05T00:11:44+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"description\":\"The Constitutional Court has confirmed a Gauteng High Court ruling that Section 40 of the Children's Act is unjustifiabl ...\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/concourt-childrens-act-discriminates-against-unmarried-parents-who-conceive-through-ivf#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/concourt-childrens-act-discriminates-against-unmarried-parents-who-conceive-through-ivf\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/concourt-childrens-act-discriminates-against-unmarried-parents-who-conceive-through-ivf#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2023\/07\/sm_1688499621.849733.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2023\/07\/sm_1688499621.849733.jpg\",\"width\":1024,\"height\":736,\"caption\":\"ConCourt: Children's Act discriminates against unmarried parents who conceive through IVF\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/concourt-childrens-act-discriminates-against-unmarried-parents-who-conceive-through-ivf#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"ConCourt: Children’s Act discriminates against unmarried parents who conceive through IVF\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/\",\"name\":\"South Africa\",\"description\":\"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\",\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"cfeditoren\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"ConCourt: Children's Act discriminates against unmarried parents who conceive through IVF - South Africa","description":"The Constitutional Court has confirmed a Gauteng High Court ruling that Section 40 of the Children's Act is unjustifiabl ...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/concourt-childrens-act-discriminates-against-unmarried-parents-who-conceive-through-ivf","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"ConCourt: Children's Act discriminates against unmarried parents who conceive through IVF","og_description":"The Constitutional Court has confirmed a Gauteng High Court ruling that Section 40 of the Children's Act is unjustifiabl ...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/concourt-childrens-act-discriminates-against-unmarried-parents-who-conceive-through-ivf","og_site_name":"South Africa","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa","article_published_time":"2023-07-04T23:04:12+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-07-05T00:11:44+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1024,"height":736,"url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2023\/07\/sm_1688499621.849733.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"cfeditoren","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"cfeditoren","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/concourt-childrens-act-discriminates-against-unmarried-parents-who-conceive-through-ivf#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/concourt-childrens-act-discriminates-against-unmarried-parents-who-conceive-through-ivf"},"author":{"name":"cfeditoren","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"headline":"ConCourt: Children’s Act discriminates against unmarried parents who conceive through IVF","datePublished":"2023-07-04T23:04:12+00:00","dateModified":"2023-07-05T00:11:44+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/concourt-childrens-act-discriminates-against-unmarried-parents-who-conceive-through-ivf"},"wordCount":313,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/concourt-childrens-act-discriminates-against-unmarried-parents-who-conceive-through-ivf#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2023\/07\/sm_1688499621.849733.jpg","keywords":["Africa Press","Africa Press-South-Africa","centre for child law","constitutional court","crime and courts","South-Africa"],"articleSection":["all news","policy"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/concourt-childrens-act-discriminates-against-unmarried-parents-who-conceive-through-ivf#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/concourt-childrens-act-discriminates-against-unmarried-parents-who-conceive-through-ivf","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/concourt-childrens-act-discriminates-against-unmarried-parents-who-conceive-through-ivf","name":"ConCourt: Children's Act discriminates against unmarried parents who conceive through IVF - South Africa","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/concourt-childrens-act-discriminates-against-unmarried-parents-who-conceive-through-ivf#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/concourt-childrens-act-discriminates-against-unmarried-parents-who-conceive-through-ivf#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2023\/07\/sm_1688499621.849733.jpg","datePublished":"2023-07-04T23:04:12+00:00","dateModified":"2023-07-05T00:11:44+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"description":"The Constitutional Court has confirmed a Gauteng High Court ruling that Section 40 of the Children's Act is unjustifiabl ...","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/concourt-childrens-act-discriminates-against-unmarried-parents-who-conceive-through-ivf#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/concourt-childrens-act-discriminates-against-unmarried-parents-who-conceive-through-ivf"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/concourt-childrens-act-discriminates-against-unmarried-parents-who-conceive-through-ivf#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2023\/07\/sm_1688499621.849733.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2023\/07\/sm_1688499621.849733.jpg","width":1024,"height":736,"caption":"ConCourt: Children's Act discriminates against unmarried parents who conceive through IVF"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/concourt-childrens-act-discriminates-against-unmarried-parents-who-conceive-through-ivf#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"ConCourt: Children’s Act discriminates against unmarried parents who conceive through IVF"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/","name":"South Africa","description":"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb","name":"cfeditoren","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"cfeditoren"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50990","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50990"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50990\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50988"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}