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UK Announces Free In-vitro Fertilization Treatments for Same-Sex Couples

Posted by on May 22, 2012 in Health, World | 1 comment

Same-sex couples and women over the age of 40 in the UK will now be provided free access to fertility treatments to help them conceive children.

Then new guidelines also call on health authorities in England and Wales to fund intra-uterine insemination (IUI), which uses donor sperms to help same-sex couples conceive. If IUI should fail for six cycles in a row, then, they should be considered for the more costly, and medically complex IVF, the guidelines will say.

These consequences follow the implementation of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act, passed by Labour in 2008, which put same-sex parenting and heterosexual parenting on equal footing in the eyes of the law.

That there has been a concomitant increase in demand from gay couples for fertility services is confirmed by figures: for example, in the three years from 2007 to 2010, the number of lesbian couples undergoing IVF nearly trebled from 178 to 417. Till now, gay couples usually had to resort to private treatment, which cost up to £8,000 per couple, with a reduction in the chances of successful conception with increase in age.

England joins other nations like Canada in putting their money where their mouth is when it comes to the equality of LGBT citizens.

It’s not unnoticed that while we’re busy (rightfully) applauding our president for simply saying he believes we deserve the right to get married, the former tyrants from whom our forefathers fled to America are whooping our asses on the equal treatment of gays and lesbians. LGBT Britons enjoy the right to marry and jointly adopt children in addition to the newly announced fertility treatment access.

You go, UK. Keep up the good work!

(via Pink News)