BY RACHEL EVANS
MELBOURNE — The federal government's plan to change the Sex Discrimination Act (SDA) to allow the Victorian Infertility Act, and laws like it in other states, to stand, has given the Victorian Labor government of Steve Bracks the opportunity to pose as saviour of women's rights while continuing discriminatory practices.
The Federal Court ruled on July 28 that sections of the Infertility Act were invalid because it found they contravened the SDA by discriminating against single women and lesbians who sought in-vitro fertilisation.
Most single and lesbian women who want to become pregnant don't need IVF. The first medical step to getting pregnant, for those for whom sex with a man is undesired or unavailable, is donor insemination. Not subject to Medicare rebate, the process is simple, quick and, at $100 or so, relatively cheap. But in Victoria it is illegal for single women and lesbians to access donor insemination services.
IVF treatment is the procedure undergone by women who are themselves infertile, or whose partners are infertile. It is complicated, time-consuming, invasive, painful and expensive. Treatment costs around $4000 without Medicare rebate. Even with a Medicare rebate it costs $1500-$2000.
Under the Infertility Act, IVF is accessible only to "medically infertile" women. Lesbian and single women have no access.
Under the same law, self-insemination is also illegal. Self-insemination, while cheap, involves health risks. Donor insemination is conducted under strict medical guidelines to ensure minimum risk. Self-insemination is not medically supervised; it is up to the participants to arrange blood or semen testing; and knowing the donor can lead to unwanted custody issues.
In an attempt to defuse anger at its discriminatory policy, the state government issued a release saying, "IVF and donor insemination would be available to all Victorian women deemed medically infertile, regardless of marital status".
After seeking legal advice, the Victorian government is choosing to ignore the Federal Court ruling and retain the discriminatory legislation. Women who are "medically infertile" are granted access; those deemed "socially infertile" are denied it.
The "socially infertile" are, of course, those who choose not to have sex with a man, or those without one at the time. The only way to find out one's fertility status is (as federal health minister Michael Wooldridge points out) through intercourse. So in practice Bracks is arguing that potential lesbian mothers should forget about their sexual identity and attempt conception by having sex with a man.
Single women are in a similar quandary. As the Australian Medical Association points out, single women who want to conceive face the potentially life-threatening option of unprotected sex with strangers to determine their "fertility status".
Part of the gay and lesbian community appears to have been fooled by the Bracks' government line. Rodney Croome, convener of the Australian Council for Lesbian and Gay Rights, described the Bracks decision as "important and positive", while adding that concern remained over the illegality of self-insemination and donor insemination.
Bracks' decision will deny IVF access to lesbians and single women, and donor insemination and self-insemination will remain illegal. There is nothing positive about this situation.
Bracks' anti-homosexual position was also clarified by his reiteration that adoption and fertility rights for gays and lesbians are not on the government's agenda.