CV NEWS FEED // The California Legislature this week passed a bill that redefines “infertility” to also extend to same-sex couples and individuals, and forces insurers, exempting religious employers, to cover some in vitro fertilization- (IVF) related expenses.
The Assembly voted in favor 55-0, and the Senate passed Senate Bill 729 30-8, according to an August 29 news release published by Send2Press Newswire. In a statement, the bill’s author State Senator Caroline Menjivar urged CA Governor Gavin Newsom to sign it.
SB 729 defines “infertility” as “A person’s inability to reproduce either as an individual or with their partner without medical intervention.”
Under current state law, “infertility” is defined as either “the presence of a demonstrated condition recognized by a licensed physician and surgeon as a cause of infertility, or… the inability to conceive a pregnancy or to carry a pregnancy to a live birth after a year or more of regular sexual relations without contraception,” according to Justia US Law.
In the August 29 news release, State Assemblymember Buffy Wicks, D-Oakland, who co-authored SB 729, stated, “California’s current law not only leaves out coverage for IVF, it also defines infertility in such a narrow way as to exclude the LGBTQ+ community and single people needing medical intervention to build their families. We must address this gap in our healthcare system.”
The Legislative Counsel’s Digest explains that SB 729
would require large and small group health care service plan contracts and disability insurance policies issued, amended, or renewed on or after… July 1, 2025, to provide coverage for the diagnosis and treatment of infertility and fertility services.
With respect to large group health care service plan contracts and disability insurance policies, the bill would require coverage for a maximum of 3 completed oocyte retrievals, as specified. The bill would revise the definition of infertility, and would remove the exclusion of in vitro fertilization from coverage.
According to the bill’s text, SB 729 does not force religious employers to follow the requirements.
As CatholicVote previously reported, “the Church teaches that IVF is a grave evil that cannot be accepted or practiced.” CatholicVote also has a compilation of Catholic videos on IVF, and infertility, which can be accessed here.
