Fertility Equality Movement

Equality Can’t Stop at Marriage: The Fertility Equality Movement

There is a growing movement that envisions a future where your ability to create a family is not determined by your wealth, sexuality, gender, or biology, but rather simply by your desire to create a family. The fertility equality movement seeks to change the definition of infertility, shifting it from a physical to a social condition. This means that people - whether they’re gay or straight, single or married, male or female - are not infertile because their bodies are biologically incapable of creating a child, rather their specific life circumstances, such as having a same-sex partner, have caused them to be unable to conceive or carry a child to term without medical intervention. Shifting our definition of infertility to a social condition would provide legal and medical mechanisms that allow those who are biologically unable to create their own family (Kaufman, 2020). 

Most insurance companies will not cover fertility treatments in the absence of a diagnosis of infertility (Broster, 2020). Our current cultural definition of infertility as the failure to conceive through intercourse is very heterocentric, and it needs to adapt and change to reflect the world around it (Kaufman, 2020). At the minimum, members of the fertility equality movement are looking for insurance coverage of procedures like sperm retrieval, egg donation, and embryo creation for all prospective parents. In an ideal world, insurance would also cover the costs of embryo transfer and surrogacy fees (Kaufman, 2020). 

Fertility treatments can be more expensive for gay couples (Broster, 2020), with some gay men seeing the six figure cost of surrogacy as a penalty for being gay (Kaufman, 2020). Ron Poole-Dayan, founder of Men Having Babies, reflects on the fact that true equality for LGBT people doesn’t stop at marriage: “It recognizes the barriers LGBTs face in forming families and proposes solutions to overcome these obstacles.” This sentiment was echoed by writer Mark Gevisser, who noted that anti-discrimination for LGBT people ended at raising children (Kaufman, 2020). 

Naturally, the fertility equality movement does not enjoy universal support. Some feminists view paid surrogacy as patriarchal, exploitative, and even akin to slavery. They believe that the quest for fertility equality erases women and denies them their essential biological role in society (Kaufman, 2020). But this view doesn’t seem to take into consideration the fact that some LGBTQ individuals who would benefit from fertility equality are, in fact, women. 

Despite these criticisms, the movement recently celebrated a victory when the state of New York legalized surrogacy this past April. Another important action comes from Affordable Families, a non-profit in Connecticut started by Mario Leigh, which is developing a bill that could lead the nation in inclusive language and insurance coverage (Kaufman, 2020).  

If you are an LGBTQ individual who is interested in starting a family, check out the Family Equality Council. They have a lot of resources available for people who are interested in starting or growing their family, including state by state guides to family law for LGBTQ people and a list of grants that are available to the LGBTQ community to help offset the costs of assisted reproduction and/or adoption.

 

References:

Broster, A. (2020, July 6). LGBTQ+ parents face unique barriers during fertility treatment. Forbes. Retrieved on August 6, 2020 from https://www.forbes.com/sites/alicebroster/2020/07/06/lgbtq-parents-face-unique-barriers-during-fertility-treatment/#74845c07372e.

Kaufman, D. (2020, July 22). The fight for fertility equality. The New York Times. Retrieved on August 6, 2020 from https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/22/style/lgbtq-fertility-surrogacy-coverage.html.

Coriann Dorgay