French MPs set to debate a controversial bill that would allow homosexual and single women to have free access to fertility treatments such as IVF and sperm donation under France’s national health insurance, for ending discrimination over women’s reproductive rights.
The country’s health care system would cover the cost of the procedures for all women under 43. It had been one of President Emmanuel Macron’s campaign promises, but was pushed aside due to a legislative traffic jam. The prime minister said that the bill was ready, but the content of it was still to be made public.
Six years after a same-sex marriage law that triggered months of mass protests, French President Emmanuel Macron announced to the National Assembly on Wednesday that by the end of September Parliament will be examining a bioethics bill that will include single women and lesbian couples to access fertility treatment.
France’s Prime Minister Edouard Philippean extension of medically assisted reproduction, such as in-vitro fertilization, for all women, including those who are single and lesbian couples.
Minister of Justice Nicole Belloubet told that the government was considering three options: “Either we extend the current legal regime to homosexual couples and single women or we create a special status for all children born from IVF with a third donor or we create a special status only for female couples and single women.”
The third option has been decried by most LGBTQ organizations as it stigmatizes lesbian couples. “This is an extremely delicate subject, because it also relates to concepts related to the protection of privacy,” Belloubet added.
Juthy Saha
