(Image courtesy Pixabay)
The Supreme Court in the United Kingdom has declined to review a case of a woman who gave birth to a child but now wants to be listed on the birth certificate as the "father."
The U.K.'s Supreme Court revealed through an official that the case does not "raise an arguable point of law which ought to be considered at this time bearing in mind that the cases were the subject of judicial decision and reviewed on appeal."
The decision not to consider the case means that Freddy McConnell, a woman who later changed her gender designation officially to male, is the child's "mother."
If McConnell wants further changes, she will need to have parliament change the existing law, the ruling means.
Attorneys for the 32-year-old McConnell claimed that being forced to be recorded as "mother" breached the nation's human rights laws.
The BBC reported earlier in the case that, "Chief Justice Lord Burnett said the Gender Recognition Act required Mr. McConnell to be registered as the mother, and the requirement did not violate his rights to private and family life, as set out in the European Convention on Human Rights."
The case's original judge found the Children Act 1989 allowed that a mother has automatic parental responsibility for a child from the moment of birth.
Not even the father has that same right, the judge said.
"From the moment of birth, someone must have parental responsibility for a newly born child, for example, to authorize medical treatment and more generally to become responsible for its care," the judge said.
The U.K. nonprofit Christian Concern said said the original judge in the case found motherhood "was about being pregnant and giving birth regardless of whether the person who does so was considered a man or a woman."
The Guardian, where McConnell works as a freelancer, reported the decision was "a blow for LGBTQ+ rights campaigners," who wanted court affirmation of their demand that the law recognize parents "for who they are."
The report explained McConnell began a medical transition from woman to man in 2013, but later suspended hormone treatments, got pregnant and gave birth.
McConnell has said an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights now is planned.
"The law around birth registration doesn’t treat LGBT people equally on any level," charged McConnell. "There needs to be a series of cases to address this or a change in the law. I feel I am too deep into this to stop now."
The Christian Institute noted that the family division judge who had heard the case, Andrew McFarlane, concluded, "It is now medically and legally possible for an individual, whose gender is recognized in law as male, to become pregnant and give birth to their child."
But he said the parental status of that person remains "mother."
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