The Associated Press on September 30 reported that 36-year old Guadalupe Benitez, of California, and her wife had received an undisclosed sum of money to settle a case they had brought against the doctors at North Coast Women’s Medical Group in Vista, Ca.
Benitez sued the medical center when her former doctors denied her artificial insemination because she was a lesbian, arguing that their beliefs did not allow them to inseminate her at the clinic. The doctors did treat her with fertility drugs, Benitez said, and they taught her how to inseminate herself at home. One of them also referred her to an LGBT-friendly fertility specialist. Benitez has since had three children.
The decision was backed by precedent, as last year California barred Christian doctors from invoking religious beliefs to legitimize discriminating against LGBT people.
According to the AP, the doctors said that they want all of their patients to feel welcome at the practice, regardless of their sexual orientation. Jennifer Pizer, Benitez’s attorney, called this statement encouraging. “It shows a journey that our whole society is taking together, away from intolerance and towards inclusion,” she told the AP.
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