Lesbian couple can't be parents: Italian city of Turin rejects councilwoman's registration of newborn

A councilwoman in the Italian city of Turin says authorities have refused to register her newborn, conceived abroad by artificial insemination, due to Italian laws that make fertility treatments available only to heterosexual couples.

In a Facebook post, Chiara Foglietta said she and partner Micaela Ghisleni tried to register their son, Niccolo' Pietro, after his birth last Friday. But she said she was told: "You must declare you had union (sexual relations) with a man to register your son.

There is no form to say you had artificial insemination." Foglietta refused, writing on Facebook: "Every child has a right to know his own story." She said the legal black hole is due to a 2002 ministerial decree that does not foresee that a woman, rather than a heterosexual couple, would seek artificial insemination.