France to legalize IVF for lesbians, single women

France’s lower house of parliament is set to approve a law that will allow single women and lesbians to have access to medically assisted reproduction for the first time

PARIS -- France’s lower house of parliament is set Tuesday to approve a law that will allow single women and lesbians access to medically assisted reproduction for the first time. The final vote on the wide-ranging bioethics law, presented by French President Emmanuel Macron’s government, has been much awaited by LGBT rights groups, who had pushed for the reproduction measure since France legalized same-sex marriage in 2013. The new law will expand access to fertility treatments such as artificial insemination and in vitro fertilization (IVF), currently reserved only for infertile heterosexual couples. In France, fertility treatments are free — and once the law passes this would also include lesbian couples and single women.