France ponders giving lesbians, single women access to IVF
Source: Associated Press
France ponders giving lesbians, single women access to IVF
By SYLVIE CORBET
August 4, 2019
PARIS (AP) Single women and lesbians in France wont have to go abroad to have babies anymore under a proposed new law that would give them access to medically assisted reproduction for the first time.
French President Emmanuel Macrons government has presented a draft law on bioethics that includes expanding the eligibility for treatments such as artificial insemination and in vitro fertilization, or IVF. French law currently restricts assisted reproduction to infertile heterosexual couples.
The assisted reproduction bill is sure to prompt strong debate next month in parliament, where Macrons centrist party has a majority. It comes five years after mass protests against same-sex marriage in France, which was legalized, and as Macrons popularity has slipped due to yellow vest protests over his economic plans.
With the proposed bill, the French national health care system would cover the cost of assisted reproduction for all women, under an age limit yet to be set, for four rounds of treatments for each pregnancy. The bill also allows sperm donor anonymity to be lifted on demand by donors children when they reach 18, instead of the strict donor anonymity that now exists in France. The proposed law will not lift the French ban on surrogacy.
The law would keep the babies and mothers from running afoul of the French legal system and give them access to the countrys generous health care system.
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