LONDON. — It took Leonie Plastina and her wife Sonja years of careful research – poring over LGBT+ rights laws and private medical costs in various European countries – to fulfil their dream of having children.
The Swiss couple consider themselves lucky – Sonja conceived in their first round of in-vitro fertilisation (IVF), which they eventually did in Spain. But their costly, cross-border quest highlights the challenges lesbian couples face to parenthood.
“It makes you painfully aware that you’re not really the same,” Plastina said on a video call. “You almost feel like you are living in a parallel world, where you are treated different just because of the fact of who you love.”
Same-sex marriage or civil partnership is now possible in 30 European countries, according to LGBT+ advocacy group ILGA-World, but legislation allowing lesbian couples to have children – either through adoption or sperm donation – has lagged behind.
Across Europe, 21 countries let one member of a same-sex couple adopt a partner’s child, 17 permit joint adoption and 14 allow lesbian couples access to fertility treatments involving donated sperm, including IVF.
Lawmakers in Switzerland, where civil partnerships have been legal since 2007, voted in December for same-sex marriage, a law that also included joint adoption and access to donated sperm for married lesbian couples.
The law is expected to be challenged in a referendum later this year, but polls show large majorities in favor of the policies, meaning couples like the Plastinas could soon be able to get fertility treatment in their home country.
The couple, who got a civil partnership in 2016 but consider themselves married, are now expecting their second son, after transplanting a frozen embryo left over from their first round of IVF.
In total, they have spent about $15,000 on their fertility treatments, not including travel costs, a price too high for many. Leonie also had to adopt their son, Joshua, once it became legal to do so in 2018, which took almost two years.
Opponents of allowing lesbian couples – and often single women, too – to access to fertility treatment, often point to the importance of children having fathers, but also to wider concerns about fertility treatment.
“Many factors could influence (opponents): a conservative cultural approach, a religious heritage linked to the ‘sanctity of life’ concept, the manipulation of these issues for political consensus,” Elena Falletti, a law researcher at University Carlo Cattaneo in Italy, said by email. — Reuters
