UK: Anti-abortion group claims extending IVF to gay couples is ‘social engineering’
The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children has denounced plans to provide gay couples with greater access to IVF treatment and says it amounts to “politically correct social engineering.”
The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) is expected to make the recommendations in a report this week.
NICE will recommend that same-sex couples be offered artificial insemination on the NHS for six cycles before moving on to IVF if that fails.
Anthony Ozimic, communications manager for the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC), an anti-abortion lobby group, criticised the new guidelines.
He said: “This decision ignores biology in the face of politically correct social engineering.
“Same-sex couples do not have fertility problems, they have chosen a naturally non-fertile lifestyle, and we shouldn’t be spending millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money on fertility procedures for people who do not have fertility problems.”
However, James Taylor, health officer for gay rights charity Stonewall, dismissed the SPUC’s claims. “There is no research that shows being brought up by two dads or two mums puts you in any worse position than being brought up by a mum and a dad,” said Mr Taylor.
John Smeaton, director of the society, said: “Marriage will be undermined because we will no longer be able to teach our children that marriage exists to protect them.”
“If this goes ahead the child will no longer be regarded as fundamental to the married state, marriage will become a genderless institution”.
