Time to celebrate for French gay rights campaigners!
The French parliament, on Tuesday, adopted a bill, giving lesbian couples and single women access to fertility treatment.
The law which is currently reserved for heterosexual couples, will henceforward allow single women and lesbian couples to get fertility treatments.
The lesbian couples or single women who had to earlier travel abroad for IVF using donor sperms, said that the procedure was both heavy on mind and pocket.
The new law will provide access to various fertility procedures, IVF (in vitro fertilization) and artificial insemination, for all women under the age of 43 while the costs will be covered by the French health service. Children conceived by donor eggs will be given access to the donor’s identity when they become adults.
It also allows women in their 30’s to freeze their eggs to conceive later. Currently the facility is available only to women undergoing any kind of treatment, such as radiation therapy or chemotherapy for cancer, that could affect their fertility.
The new law has now included France in the list of countries to have similar law towards equal rights. The list now comprises of Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta, Norway, Belgium, Spain, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, the Netherlands, Portugal, Sweden and now France.
