Adoption
AdoptioniStock

JTA - Israel’s government remains opposed to allowing same-sex couples to adopt in the country, the State said in response to a Supreme Court petition.

The government did, however, say it would allow common-law couples who have been living together for three years to adopt children in Israel.

The decision to not change its stance on same-sex couples “takes into account the reality of Israeli society and the difficulty entailed with regard to the child being adopted,” the government said in a response to the court, citing Child Welfare Services.

Same-sex couples - like couples with biological children - can be approved for adoption, but they can only adopt children children over two years of age. These children are classed automatically as "special needs," because of the emotional trauma they have been through - regardless of whether or not they in fact have learning, physical, or mental disabilities.

Many Israeli couples adopt babies from other countries.

The petition to the Supreme Court regarding same-sex and common-law couple adoption was filed by the Association of Israeli Gay Fathers, together with the Israel Religious Action Center of the Reform movement, against the Social Affairs Ministry and the attorney general, according to Haaretz.

A comprehensive long term study by sociologist Mark Regnerus of the University of Texas at Austin published in the Journal of Social Science Research in 2012 and summarized by the Family Research Council has shown that children adopted by same-sex parents are at a distinct disadvantage compared to those in conventional families for most of the categories in the study.