California Supreme Court: Docs Can’t Refuse to Treat Gays on Basis of Religious Beliefs

California Supreme Court: Docs Can’t Refuse to Treat Gays on Basis of Religious Beliefs

Continuing to blaze the way through gay rights law, the California Supreme Court decided yesterday (Monday) that doctors may not discriminate against gays and lesbians in medical treatment, even if the procedures being sought conflict with religious beliefs. Here are reports from the L.A. Times and the Recorder.

“The 1st Amendment’s right to the free exercise of religion does not exempt defendant physicians here from conforming their conduct to the . . . antidiscrimination requirements,” Justice Joyce L. Kennard wrote for the court. Here’s the opinion. [pdf]

Here’s what happened in the case: Guadalupe Benitez, a lesbian who lives with her partner and wants to become pregnant with donated sperm, filed a suit after Dr. Christine Brody said she wouldn’t perform an intrauterine insemination. In her lawsuit, Benitez alleged that Brody said her religious views prevented her from providing the procedure to a lesbian. Benitez also claimed that another physician at the clinic told her that the staff was uncomfortable helping her conceive a child.

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