Tag Archives: Spain

Madrid Offers Assisted Reproduction To All Lesbian Couple After Court Ruling

Only days after a court handed down a decision in Spain against government restrictions on assisted reproduction treatments, Madrid regional premier Cristina Cifuentes said her government would immediately open the publicly funded services to all women regardless of their sexual preference or marital status.

Cristina Cifuentes

The announcement came after a Madrid court ordered regional government health officials and the Fundación Jiménez Díaz hospital to pay compensation to a lesbian woman who was cut off from the program following an order from the Health Ministry to deny services to unwed mothers and gay women.

After the couple filed numerous complaints and a lawsuit in May, the hospital said that it would re-evaluate all the cases and the woman is once again back under the assisted reproduction program.

The hospital’s decision to remove her from the program was based on a 2013 order by then-Health Minister Ana Mato, who excluded unwed mothers and lesbians from receiving artificial insemination and other fertility therapies paid for by the public health system.

Mato had issued the order based on a government decree to cut some €7 billion from the public health budget. Both Cifuentes and Mato are from the ruling Popular Party (PP).

But the court opined that the order went against legislation passed in 2006 on assisted reproduction, which clearly states that such treatment is available to women over the age of 18, “regardless of their civil status or sexual orientation.”

It ordered both the regional government and hospital to pay €4,875 in compensation to the women.

Cifuentes said that neither the government nor the hospital will appeal the decision and confirmed that the patient is back in the program.

All women “have the same rights” when it comes to reproduction assistance, she said.

Miss Spain Comes Out on Instagram

Crowned Miss Spain, Patricia Yurena Rodriguez has made history as the first national beauty pageant winner to come out as gay.

She revealed her relationship on Instagram, where she’s got over 46,000 followers, labelling this photo ‘Romeo and Juliet’.

Rodriguez told Spanish newspaper La Nacion

“I do not regret what I did. I’m thrilled with what is happening to me… Really, I would love to one day live in a society where coming out is no longer necessary because we don’t make assumptions about one another’s sexuality and homophobia is laid to rest. For now, that is more of an ideal than it is a reality. But if you want to see that ideal become a reality and you have the courage to change history.”

Patricia Yurena Rodriguez

Rodriguez and her girlfriend have been together for several months, after meeting through mutual friends.

Since posting her couple photo, the beauty queen has thanked her supporters on Instagram for their kind words too.

“I published quite naturally and impulsively. I appreciate the outpouring of support and even more to rejoice in my happiness. Thank you!!”

Patricia Yurena Rodriguez