The UK’s High Court ruled Wednesday that a transgender man who had given birth to a child must be legally registered as the mother of the child.

The issue arose when a transgender man gave birth to a child and wished to be legally registered as the father or, alternatively, the parent of the child. The High Court ultimately concluded that “there is a material difference between a person’s gender and their status as a parent.”

The High Court described the term “mother” as “the status afforded to a person who undergoes the physical and biological process of carrying a pregnancy and giving birth.” The High Court reasoned that parental status is no longer gender specific as it was in the past, and that now a mother could legally be male.