Making Laws About Making Babies: Bias Against Gays and Lesbians

"Two cases brought by Lambda Legal illustrate that discrimination continues to frustrate and humiliate gay men and women seeking equal treatment in fertility services. Guadalupe Benitez was denied infertility treatment by a clinic in California because she is a lesbian; the California Supreme Court ruled that the doctors’ actions were illegal under the state’s antidiscrimination law. In Florida, Dennis Barros and his partner planned to have a child through a surrogate mother, but the clinic they enlisted refused to provide services. It used the discriminatory F.D.A. guidelines on anonymous sperm donations as justification — although there was nothing anonymous about this sperm donation and nothing unknown about Dr. Barros’s H.I.V. status."

Read Staff Attorney Beth Littrell's entire "Room for Debate" editorial on nytimes.com