Doctors Must Treat Gays and Lesbians

The California Supreme Court has handed down another opinion striking a blow for the equal rights of LGBT citizens. This time in North Cost Women's Care Medical Group vs. Superior Court, the Court handed down a unanimous decision rejecting a San Diego County fertility clinic's attempt to use its physicians' religious beliefs as a justification for their refusal to provide artificial insemination for a lesbian couple. In my view, the Court correctly reasoned that a religious objector has no federal constitutional right to an exemption from a neutral and valid law of general applicability on the ground that compliance with that law is contrary to the objector’s religious beliefs. In this case, the law was California's law barring discrimination by those business establishments that offer to the public “accommodations, advantages, facilities, privileges, or services.” Needless to say, the Christianists will be shedding all kinds of theatrical tears over this ruling since in their view, their rights and beliefs trump those of everyone else. Here are some highlights from the San Francisco Chronicle:

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SAN FRANCISCO -- Doctors in California must treat gays and lesbians the same as any other patient, regardless of religious objections, the state Supreme Court ruled today. In a unanimous decision, the court rejected a San Diego County fertility clinic's attempt to use its physicians' religious beliefs as a justification for their refusal to provide artificial insemination for a lesbian couple.

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Guadalupe Benitez sued North Coast Women's care in Vista and two of its doctors, saying they told her in 2000 that because she was a lesbian their Christian beliefs prohibited them from performing intrauterine insemination for her. The doctors later claimed they would have refused the treatment for any unmarried couple.

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Today's ruling, three months after overturning California's ban on same-sex marriage, strengthened the state's law that prohibits businesses, including medical clinics, from discriminating against customers because of their sexual orientation, as well as their race, sex or religion. The court said religious beliefs do not excuse discrimination.

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Benitez, now 36, said the ruling isn't just a victory for lesbians. "Anyone could be the next target if doctors are allowed to pick and choose their patients based on religious views about other groups of people," she said.

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Attorney Brad Dacus of the Pacific Justice Institute, a conservative group that filed arguments supporting the doctors, called today's ruling "the epitome of intolerance" and said it forces the defendants "to choose between being doctors in the state of California or being able to practice their faith."