California doctors can't refuse fertility treatments to lesbians on religious grounds, court rules
The California Supreme Court decides unanimously that a state antidiscrimination law trumps the religious freedom rights of doctors.
The California Supreme Court ruled today that physicians may not refuse to provide fertility treatments to lesbians because of religious beliefs.
In a unanimous decision, the state high court said a state antidiscrimination law trumps the religious freedom rights of doctors in such cases.
If doctors do not want to help lesbians have children, they must refuse to perform the procedures for all patients, the court said.
The ruling stemmed from a lawsuit by a San Diego woman who contended that Christian doctors at a clinic told her they could not help her become pregnant because their religion condemned having children outside of opposite-sex marriages.
maura.dolan@latimes.com
