STL Fertility joined the St. Louis LGBTQ community recently in celebrating a major policy win from the U.S. State Department that grants citizenship to babies born abroad to same-sex married couples where one parent is not an American. The victory is the result of a policy change that originally denied citizenship status to those babies, and forced many same-sex families to live in a citizenship limbo that often involved time-consuming court battles.
The old policy stipulated that citizenship could only be granted to babies born abroad if the baby’s parents were married and the baby was genetically related to the U.S. citizen parent.
Take for example a married female couple recently in the news for fighting the policy. One woman is American and the other is Italian, and their sons were born in London. Each woman carried one son, but the son born to the Italian mother was denied American citizenship, while his brother, carried by the American mother, was not. After several federal courts ruled the policy was unsound, the State Department last week reversed the policy, paving the way for the boy in the above case – and babies born in the future under these circumstances – to be U.S. citizens at birth.
Going forward, babies born abroad will be granted U.S. citizenship rights if their parents are married, at least one is a U.S. citizen and the baby has a genetic or gestational tie to either of the parents.
Dr. Maureen Schulte, Dr. Molina Dayal, nurse practitioner Melanie Miranda and the rest of the STL Fertility staff are thrilled with this policy change, which gives fundamental rights to same-sex couples and further affirms that love is love.
STL Fertility is an LGBTQ-friendly fertility practice with deep roots in St. Louis, helping couples – and individuals – build their families. If you’re a member of the LGBTQ community and ready to start your family connect with us today! www.stlfertility.com