[Source: Health and Life Sciences Law Daily, August 3, 2007]
USA Today (8/3, Parker) reports, "The California Supreme Court is being asked to answer that question when it hears a legal dispute between a lesbian mom," Guadalupe Benitez, and two doctors "who refused to artificially inseminate her for religious reasons." The high court "is being asked to decide how to accommodate a physician's religious views without violating California's anti-discrimination laws." USA Today notes, "The dispute arose in 2000 after San Diego-area doctors Christine Brody and Douglas Fenton refused to artificially inseminate Benitez." The doctors "say in court papers that they refused to treat Benitez because she is unmarried, not because she is gay." Said to be the first of its kind, the case "is shaping up as one of the most controversial before the court in years. Jill Morrison, legal counsel to the National Women's Law Center, noted that a distinguishing factor of Benitez's case "is that the physicians involved refused to provide a medical procedure to one patient that they readily provide to others." Morrison said, "Usually, providers who object to certain services object to them for everyone: 'I won't provide contraception.' In this case, they don't object to the service, just the patient. You can't pick and choose. You can't say, 'I will perform it for white people, but not for black people.'" Meanwhile, Kenneth Pedroza, the doctors' attorney, "counters that an 'all-or-nothing' rule will drive physicians out of certain specialties." USA Today (8/3, 1A) also notes the number of states that allow healthcare professionals to refuse to provide certain services.
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From USA Today:
Number of states that allow health care professionals to refuse to provide these services:
•46 — abortions
•17 — sterilization
•13 — contraceptives
[Source: Guttmacher Institute]
