Serbia Has Blocked Path for LGBTQ Parenthood After Lesbian PM Has Baby

Serbia's health minister has banned queer people from donating eggs for artificial insemination. The decidedly anti-LGBTQ policy went into effect shortly after the Eastern European nation's lesbian primary minister, Ana Brnabic, had a child through the same means.

Radio Free Europe reported on the decidedly contrary position from the administration, noting that since Serbia also bans LGBTQ parents from adopting children, the decree "effectively bans same-sex couples from having children" in Serbia.

Brnabic's office announced in Feburary that partner Milica Djurdjic had given birth to Igor, the couple's first child. The prime minister at the time stressed the history-making significance of the birth.

"Ana Brnabic is one of the first prime ministers whose partner has given birth while in office ... and the first in the world in a same-sex couple," read an official statement from the prime minister's office.

The child was conceived through in vitro fertilization, which Djurdjic underwent outside the country, according to Radio Free Europe.

But within a month of the birth, Health Minister Zlatibor Loncar unrolled a policy prohibiting any individual who had "homosexual relations during the past five years" from donating reproductive cells for a similar procedure.

Dragoslava Barzut, executive director of the LGBTQ advocacy group De Se Zna!, argues the new administration policy violates Serbian individuals' human rights.

"This bylaw violates the Law on the Prohibition of Discrimination as well as the Constitution of the Republic of Serbia" that was adopted in 2006," Barzut told Radio Free Europe. "It is not in line with other legal documents and other laws. Therefore, it should be revised."

Loncar was able to sign the decree into law himself, but it must undergo review by Serbia's equality commissioner, and may yet see repeal.

Brnabic herself has yet to weigh in on the issue publicly.