Court Hears Infertility Case

In 1999, Guadalupe "Lupita" Benitez was referred by her personal physician to North Coast Women's Care Medical Group for infertility care. After preparatory treatments, including medication and unnecessary surgery — a process that lasted for 11 months — her doctors admitted they would not perform donor insemination for her because she is a lesbian.

In 2004, Benitez won a legal ruling saying that doctors in a for-profit medical group must comply with California's antidiscrimination laws and treat all patients equally, whatever the doctors' personal religious beliefs may be. But the doctors asked that the decision be reviewed, and the San Diego Court of Appeal ruled in their favor. The doctors claim a right to opt out of California's civil rights law because they are fundamentalist Christians and object to treating a lesbian patient the same way they treat other patients.

Lambda Legal, along with O'Melveny & Myers LLP and Albert Gross of Solana Beach, is now defending Benitez before the California Supreme Court. "What happened to me is something that could happen to any person at any time. Patients should be able to trust that when they go to a doctor, they'll receive appropriate medical care," Benitez said.