The Constitutional Court of Colombia upheld the country's restrictions against same-sex adoption on Wednesday.
The high court found that same-sex couples can continue to adopt children as long as one of the partners is the biological parent.
The ruling does not prohibit the Congress of Colombia from creating legislation on the issue in the future, and the court recommended that lawmakers address the "legislative vacuum" that LGBT couples face in the country.
A series of rulings between 2007 and 2011 afforded gay couples many of the common-law marriage rights that heterosexual couples enjoy, including property, pension, and inheritance rights.
In July 2011, the court determined that gay couples have the right to form a legal family, and ordered Congress to propose same-sex marriage legislation by June 2013.
A bill was introduced in 2012 to legalise same-sex marriage, but it was ultimately rejected by the Senate. Civil union legislation was similarly defeated in 2007.
After Wednesday's ruling, some LGBT activists said the justices did not go far enough, with Senator Armando Benedetti calling them "cowards."
Others commended the court for finding a compromise between allowing gay couples to adopt without restriction, and blocking them from adopting at all.
Colombia's Conference of Bishops president, the Right Rev. Msgr. Luis Agosto Castro Quiroga, vowed that he would continue to oppose same-sex adoption, and fight for "the right of children to have a mother and a father."
"Two mums don't make a dad," he insisted.
