Since only married and unmarried heterosexual couples have access to heterologous insemination in Germany, same-gender female couples often resort to the ‘cup method’ at home. For sperm bank donors, it is assumed that they waive all parental rights by wishing to remain anonymous. The Federal Supreme Court (Bundesgerichtshof) decided that this assumption cannot be applied to private donors without more, thus making it more difficult for female couples to form a legal family. These couples have to reckon with sperm donors changing their minds and preventing the adoption – a problem that only exists because, unlike husbands, registered partners do not automatically become legal co-parents of children born into the partnership.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) issued on 10 March 2015 a judgment dealing with the prerequisite of sterility of a trans person and the denial by the Turkish authorities to authorise gender reassignment surgery.

The Austrian National Council (federal parliament's first chamber) on 21 January 2015, by an overwhelming majority of over 2/3 of votes casted (116:48), has passed federal government's Medically Assisted Procreation Amendment Bill establishing automatic co-parenthood for lesbian couples.

As part of the litigation offensive by Rechtskomitee LAMBDA (RKL), Austria´s LGBT-rights organisation, the Austrian Constitutional Court, as the first court in Europe doing so,  has struck down the ban on joint adoption by same-sex couples. RKL is calling now for an immediate lift of the marriage-ban which has lost any basis.