Lesbian Sues Christian Doctor Over Refusal to Inseminate
Homosexual advocacy groups are rallying behind a woman who claims she was unlawfully prevented from receiving artificial insemination because of a Christian physician's moral objection to impregnating lesbians.
Published
Feb 19, 2003
When Guadalupe Benitez's health care provider referred her to the North Coast Women's Care Medical Group (NCWMG) in 1999, she was told that the medical facility was the only provider of obstetrics and gynecology available under her plan. Eager to conceive, she spent the next 11 months seeking fertility treatments at the San Diego-based NCWMG.
According to Benitez, the controversy began when she informed her assigned physician, Dr. Christine Brody, of her homosexuality and her desire to become pregnant by means of artificial insemination.
Dr. Brody reportedly told Benitez that she did not object to providing fertility treatments to a lesbian, but her Christian faith prevented her from impregnating homosexuals through means of artificially insemination. She referred Benitez to an outside physician who did not share her moral objection.
Disgusted with Brody's faith-based refusal to impregnate her, Benitez sued Brody and the NCWMG based on a California law designed to prevent discrimination by business establishments and health care providers. A San Diego trial dismissed the lawsuit in 1999, saying it was without merit.
Citing a federal law that regulates employee health care plans, the trial court said Benitez was not entitled to bring a state civil rights claim against Brody and the NCWMG because their services are paid for through an employer-provided health plan.
Case appealed
Now, four years later, Benitez has teamed up with Lambda Legal, a homosexual legal advocacy group, claiming trauma from being "dumped" as a patient because of her homosexuality. She is also seeking compensation for a procedure that she claims should have been provided by her health care plan and the NCWMG.
Lambda Legal recently announced that it had filed a friend-of-the-court brief in support of Benitez' case, which is currently before the California Court of Appeals in San Diego.
"Guadalupe's doctors are entitled to hold any personal religious belief they choose," said Jennifer Pizer, senior staff attorney for Lambda Legal. "But health care providers do not have the right to refuse medically appropriate treatment to a patient based on what they claim are personal religious beliefs about particular people."
According to Pizer, medical providers such as Brody are "legally and ethically" obligated to inseminate any patient who seeks such treatment, including homosexuals.
"Sadly, this denial of services is something that lesbian and gay people have to deal with as a fact of life," said Dr. Kenneth Haller, president of the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association.
Haller complained in a recent press statement that Benitez' health care plan made no effort to provide a covered alternative to the NCWMG, forcing her to incur thousands of dollars in medical expenses for the procedure to be performed by an outside Ob/Gyn provider.
"Ms. Benitez' plan provided for fertility care," Haller said. "Her health care plan should have covered her medical expenses in any event. It is their responsibility under the plan."
Family values argued
Haller claims that Dr. Brody's Christian faith and morals are at odds with current medical literature and studies regarding homosexual parenting.
"The medical literature is quite clear that children of same-sex parents do just as well as kids of opposite-sex partners in their psychological, physical and spiritual developments. Even so, there [are] those who refuse to believe it," Haller said. "Worse, how can physicians, of all people, let their personal beliefs influence their delivery of appropriate medical care?"
But some conservatives disagree. "That is a lie...they are dead wrong," said Traditional Values Coalition Chairman Rev. Lou Sheldon in response to Haller's comments regarding same-sex parents.
Sheldon said Dr.. Brody's objection to artificially inseminating homosexuals is her right under the First Amendment. He said nobody should be forced to do things -- including medical procedures -- that are totally against their moral and Christian beliefs.
"This is an issue of the creative order that has been set in motion by the God of nature," Sheldon said. "We know from a sociological standpoint that two women cannot raise one child the way a man and a woman can...that has been substantiated scientifically," he added.
It is not clear when the appellate court will issue a ruling in Guadalupe's case.
Originally published February 20, 2003.
