California Supreme Court Rules Doctors Can’t Use Religion to Deny Treatment
The California Supreme Court has made another landmark vote in favor of LGBT rights. On Monday the judges voted unanimously that doctors who have religious objections to caring for gay and lesbian patients must provide them with treatment or find another colleague in their office who will.
Plaintiff Guadalupe Benitez brought the suit against a San Diego fertility clinic in 2000 when two doctors’ used their religious beliefs to justify their refusal to provide artificial insemination to Benitez and her partner. The two physcians later stated that their Christian beliefs would have led them to refuse treatment to any unmarried couple.
Benitez does not view this just as a win for lesbians, “Anyone could be the next target if doctors are allowed to pick and choose their patients based on religious views,” she says.
