On Friday, November 5, Carolina Darias, health minister of Spain of the ruling Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE), signed the bill which restores equality to LGBTQ+ families and single women looking for accessible fertility treatments.
Under the renewed law, queer people and single individuals will all be able to access the same free fertility treatments in public hospitals as heterosexual married couples.
The same law was already in place in Spain up until 2013, when the ruling conservative Popular party took measures to limit eligibility to straight married couples, forcibly excluding queer women and single women who had to pay thousands for private treatment to start to grow their families.
? El Gobierno devuelve el derecho al acceso a la reproducción humana asistida a mujeres sin pareja, lesbianas y bisexuales e incluye a las personas trans con capacidad de gestar
? @CarolinaDarias : "Hoy es un día de restitución de derechos" pic.twitter.com/KreiwidQ2A
— Ministerio de Sanidad (@sanidadgob) November 5, 2021
Spanish LGBTQ+ activists have been fighting for the reinstatement of the inclusive bill, and they have finally seen victory. Darias, who signed the bill at a ceremony attended by many of these activists, has been vocal about her support of the renewed inclusive legislation.
“Starting today, single women, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender people will have access to [reproductive technologies] on the [public health service],” she wrote on Twitter. “We have restored rights that should never have been abolished.”
The president of Spain’s federation of LGBTQ+ rights groups, Uge Sangil, attended the bill-signing ceremony and made a statement in celebration of the return to equal reproductive rights.
We welcome the expansion of IVF rights to single women, lesbians, bisexuals and trans people in Spain, and congratulate activists who have long fought for it! https://t.co/CMNJJWvbm4
— ILGA-Europe (@ILGAEurope) November 5, 2021
They said, “We have always understood that achieving rights such as assisted reproduction benefits lesbian and bisexual women and pregnant trans people, without harming anyone.
“It is an example of how recognizing LGBT+ rights means recognising human rights for society as a whole.
“We will not be able to be citizens with all rights fully recognised as long as the conditions of freedom and equality of all people are not guaranteed, whatever their sexual orientation, gender identity or expression.”
✊? Que a nadie le quepa ninguna duda: ampliar derechos reproductivos es ampliar #DDHH. Avanzamos y no solo para el colectivo LTB sino también para todas, todas,las mujeres. https://t.co/nIglz0nNSB
— Uge Sangil (@USangil) November 5, 2021
Despite their overwhelmingly positive words on this latest fertility treatment ruling in Spain, they went on to acknowledge that the fight for equality must continue and that “we are not going to stop because our struggle is daily, resilient and active”.
“We are, activists, more necessary than ever. We have history, we have memory, we have strength, we have conviction and we are right; they will never stop us,” they said.
© 2021 GCN (Gay Community News). All rights reserved.
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