Lesbians and IVF: redressing the balance

by Death by Chocolate

Many newspapers this week reported that a lesbian couple has won the right to IVF treatment on the NHS.  As several writers exclaimed in their headlines, this was “At Taxpayers Expense!”  Goodness, NHS treatments at the expense of taxpayers?  Groundbreaking stuff!  The outrage said writers experienced at this state of affairs must surely be to blame for their failure to place the requisite apostrophe after ‘Taxpayers’.  But I digress. 

The decision of the trust is not the first of its kind.  As was widely reported in February, the NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde reversed its initial denial of IVF treatment to a lesbian couple after the women commenced judicial review proceedings against them.  Both of these recent decisions are in anticipation of a change in the law that will, from October 2009, significantly reduce the hurdles faced by lesbians seeking IVF treatment on the NHS.  The choice as to whether to fund such treatment will still lie with individual health trusts.  However, under the previous Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990, a trust could deny lesbian couples treatment by reference to a child’s “need for a father”.  As of October, couples will instead be required to demonstrate that they can offer “supportive parenting” – clearly a little less insurmountable for those all-female wannabe parental units out there.

Response to the changes has been predictably mixed.  One well known publication referred to the fact that only 27% of NHS trusts offer heterosexual couples the recommended three cycles of IVF treatment, whilst same sex couples are described as having been awarded “new rights” under the amended legislation.  This is a rather misleading position to take.  Whilst it is correct to state that the rights of lesbians stand to be improved under the revised Act, this will not put them in a more advantageous position than their heterosexual counterparts.  It will simply mean that they start on an equal footing.  Anything other than ‘equal’ is unjustifiable, and that is not just my personal opinion, but one that this country has enshrined legally by virtue of the key pieces of human rights and equality legislation we have enacted over the years.

Finally, for those of you considering creating your own little bundle of joy, Stonewall recently published a very helpful ‘idiot’s guide’ which you can access here.  Happy reading.