The French Huffington Post publishes an exclusive YouGov survey demonstrating opposition to surrogacy and ART for gay couples and suggests the government has a long way to go to change public opinion.
Article source: “Sondage mères porteuses (GPA): les Français sont pour, mais pas pour les homos”, Geoffroy Clavel, Le HuffPost, 14/02/2013
Does mariage pour tous pave the way for ART and the legalisation of surrogate mothers in France? Throughout the debates in the National Assembly that concluded this week with the passing of the bill, this threat was continuously hammered home by the UMP and centrist opposition.
However, the government have consistently denied any desire to legislate on the issue of surrogacy, Christiane Taubira’s memo only suggested that the granting of French citizenship to children born to foreign surrogate mothers should be facilitated. However, the principle of extending ART to same-sex couples, barring any new dramatic turn of events, will be tackled towards the end of 2013, as Taubira recently confirmed.
Surrogacy: Yes for straight people, no for gays.
But public opinion on these social issues, which belong to the field of bioethics, is far from clear-cut. According to our exclusive YouGov survey for Le HuffPost, a narrow majority of French people (47%) are in favour of legalising the use of surrogate mothers by straight couples, with 43% against. 9% of those questioned declined to offer an opinion.
Party political divisions play a key role on this point: a strong majority of respondents with left-wing (62%) and far left (60%) allegiancies support authorising surrogacy, against only 43% of FN supporters, 37% of UMP supporters, and 35% of centrist voters.
But things get more complicated when it comes to the legalisation of surrogacy for gay couples. 58% of French people oppose it (against 33% in favour). The rejection rate reaches 80% among Marine Le Pen’s supporters and 77% among those who voted for Nicolas Sarkozy (UMP) at the last election.
This dichotomy would complicate any future plans to legislate on surrogacy, since the principle of equal rights evoked during the debates about same-sex marriage requires that, if surrogacy becomes legal, it applies to both straight and same-sex couples.
Complicated debates to come about ART
The same problem is likely to arise with regard to assisted reproductive technology. ART is currently legal for heterosexual couples, via IVF (in vitro fertilisation) or artificial insemination. However, the idea of making it accessible to lesbian couples has been met with clear public opposition.
50% of French people are against it, among them 71% of UMP supporters and 78% of those who voted for Marine Le Pen. On the other hand, 40% of French people, a large majority of whom are left-wing, are in favour of same-sex couples having access to ART.
The government will therefore have to tiptoe its way through this project, which is already causing infighting in the National Assembly majority. While the socialist group was originally contemplating including this issue in the bill for marriage equality, François Hollande convinced his friends to examine the future reform during the discussions on the Family Law, planned for March.
But this programme was pushed back once again when the National Consultative Ethics Committee took it upon itself to examine the question. They will take several months to reach a decision. This does have the advantage of leaving the government a bit more time to change public opinion.
Translation: Perrine Jégou and Alexandra Bilthauer
Editing: Sam Trainor