This lesbian couple told to try sex with men before starting fertility treatment
The state of New Jersey is facing a challenge over a law that says lesbians wanting a baby should try having sex with men.
Under the state’s current legal statutes, infertility is defined as when a woman cannot conceive after a year or more of unprotected intercourse with a man.
Due to this, a number of lesbians have found themselves rejected for coverage by their insurers, Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey, when seeking fertility treatment.
Erin and Marianne Krupa were forced to spent more than $50,000 on infertility treatment after their insurance claim was rejected under the law. They had previously suffered six miscarriages.
They are joined in the case by two other women, Sol Mejias and Sarah Mills.
Lawyer Grace Cathryn Cretcher, an attorney representing the four women in the case, told Reuters that the legal definition of infertility should not be phrased to exclude lesbians.
Susan Sommer, a spokeswoman for Lambda Legal, added: “This lawsuit reflects the frustration and indignities lesbian and gay people endure because state laws and insurance rules continue to presume the only parents are heterosexual parents.”
One of the women, Marianne Krupa told WABC-TV: “Right away, we were told that without having [hetrosexual] sexual intercourse, we would not be covered.”
Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield said in a statement: “Horizon covers infertility services equally regardless of sexual orientation. We interpret the 2001 New Jersey law defining infertility in a gender and orientation neutral manner and our coverage standard complies with federal non-discrimination requirements.”
New Jersey’s Governor Chris Christie, a prominent supporter of Donald Trump, recently attacked a ‘grandstanding’ boycott of North Carolina over the state’s anti-LGBT law.
After the NBA recently confirmed it would be moving its 2017 All-Star Game out of the state, he fumed: “Are they going to evaluate every law in every state or is it just a certain law?
“I know what it is… it’s grandstanding by the NBA, and that’s what they do.”
Christie was previously seen as a moderate on LGBT rights within the Republican Party, refusing to waste money defending a gay marriage ban, opposing anti-LGBT ‘religious freedom’ laws, and signing a law to ban ‘gay cure’ therapy.
However, he has gone back on many of the stances since hitching himself to the Trump Wagon.
