Ruth Institute Blog

Charlie Butts – OneNewsNow -

A Christian attorney suggests that a ruling Tuesday by the California Supreme Court legitimizes discrimination against individuals who claim their religious convictions prevent them from providing certain professional services.

A California lesbian has settled a lawsuit against doctors who refused — on the basis of their Christian faith — to provide her artificial insemination services. The case went to the California Supreme Court (see details from Associated Press below) which ruled that doctors, in spite of their faith, cannot violate state anti-discrimination laws that are designed, in part, to protect homosexuals.
 
While that ends the case, Brad Dacus of the Pacific Justice Institute says questions remain unresolved.

“The big question is the extent to which religious objection will be defeated in the future in other cases where you have institutions having religious convictions against providing other services,” the attorney explains. “For example, a religious hospital not wishing to provide abortions, even though [abortion could be] potentially mandated by some future law.”
 
Dacus feels the court is saying the lesbian, who has since had three children, has won the case, while discrimination against doctors of faith is legal.
 
“No American,” he says, “should ever have to be in a position where they have to choose between performing their skills and tasks and being able to follow their faith and their convictions.”
 
Dacus feels the lawsuit was an attempt to further the homosexual agenda, and intimidate and coerce individuals in the private sector to the point where they are unable to live and express their faith.

Doctors settle case for denying lesbian treatment

SAN DIEGO, CA - A California woman has settled a lawsuit against her former doctors who denied her artificial insemination based on her sexual orientation, attorneys for both sides said Tuesday.

Guadalupe Benitez, 36, of Oceanside, and her spouse sued doctors at North Coast Women’s Medical Group in Vista for discrimination in 2001. California’s highest court last year barred the Christian doctors from invoking religious beliefs, ruling state law prohibiting sexual orientation discrimination extends to the medical profession.

Attorneys for the doctors and Benitez said that they settled the case for an undisclosed sum of money. The doctors said in a statement that they want all of their patients – including those who are homosexual – to feel welcome in their medical practice.

Benitez has said the doctors treated her with fertility drugs and instructed her how to inseminate herself at home, but told her their beliefs prevented them from inseminating her.

One of the doctors referred her to another fertility specialist who didn’t have moral objections. Benitez has since given birth to three children.

“It’s been a long, hard fight to get to this point,” Benitez said following the settlement announcement. “But we know we’ve made a difference in the law that will help people in California and across the country.”

The statement issued by North Coast was encouraging, said Jennifer Pizer, Benitez’s attorney. ”It shows a journey that our whole society is taking together, away from intolerance and towards inclusion,” she said.