A mum who was forced to adopt her child when a registrar wrongly said she was not allowed to be on the birth certificate has had the decision reversed by the High Court.
Helen Arnold, 48, had her baby via IVF but when her partner Sarah Osborne tried to put her name on the birth certificate the registrar told her it couldn't be done and she "clearly wasn't the father". However the law states same-sex female couples who have a child through IVF and who consent to being treated as a parent should be named on the child’s birth certificate.
Following the birth in 2014, Ms Osborne, 48, had to legally adopt the child to be recognised as its mother. It was only when the couple had another child in 2018 and she was allowed to be put on that birth certificate that she realised the whole adoption process had been unnecessary.
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In 2014 she was told she would have to become a step-parent and adopt the child when it was six months old despite both having signed consent forms when they went through IVF saying Ms Osborne would be a legal parent.
Ms Osborne said: “The disrespectful, indignant and flippant attitude of the registrar made me feel stupid for asking or expecting to be named as a parent and I wasn’t worthy of such official recognition, as if I was a random stranger off the street. In those moments I felt the pride and identity of being a mother stripped away from me by the registrar’s hostile, dismissive and inconsiderate comments which were devastating.
"I was, am and always have been, my child’s mother.”
Ms Osborne went through several meetings and phone calls with social workers in 2015 to assess her suitability as a parent and was told that adopting a child was not to be taken lightly. She also had to complete a DBS form and apply to court and in November 2015 the couple had an adoption hearing at Ipswich Family Court and a celebratory ceremony there a month later.
At no point did any official recognise that Ms Osborne should have been legally added to the birth certificate as the parent and that the adoption was unnecessary. In 2019 they launched a legal bid to have both the adoption and the original birth certificate quashed.
In 2020 the General Register Office admitted: “It would appear that the criteria for a joint registration showing both your details at the time of your child’s birth would have been met.” The couple then launched a High Court bid to correct the mistake made by the Cambridgeshire Registry Office and revoke the adoption of their first child, who cannot be named for legal reasons.
In an unusual move Mr Justice Alistair MacDonald granted their request and also quashed the original birth certificate so both women can now be registered as parents. He also ordered Cambridgeshire County Council to shoulder all of the erroneous costs.
Ms Osborne said: “It’s a travesty that we have had to go through this process all the way to the High Court simply to get my right of being recognised as our child’s parent. At the same time, we are very angry and deeply disappointed that we have had to fight so hard to put right Cambridgeshire County Council’s failures and get the adoption order revoked.
"We should never have been placed in this situation in the first place.”
Ms Arnold said: “For our child it was simply unfathomable that they were adopted. To then find out that none of it was necessary was incomprehensible. The fact that our child has two mums already sets them apart, already represents something they need to learn to adapt to, explain and accept.
“Knowing that they were also adopted was an added layer of complexity and was potentially very damaging to them and fails to reflect the reality of their life. We have both always been our child’s mothers and it is outrageous that we had to go through the painful and humiliating process of Sarah having to adopt.”
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