Staff Reports
The California legislature is up to their usual antics again, this time considering a bill that would redefine the term “infertility” to include male homosexual partners. This reckless bill, an amendment to the state’s health insurance called SB 729, would cause chaos in California’s healthcare plans.
Proposed California Law Gets Government and Insurance Companies Involved in Surrogate Pregnancies for Gay Men. What Could Go Wrong? https://t.co/7j82kcnVMY
— Marlon East Of The Pecos (@Darksideleader2) June 14, 2023
Freshman state senator Caroline Menjivar (D.), who coauthored the bill with Assemblywoman Buffy Wicks (D.), claimed the amendment would ensure “queer couples” don’t have to pay more than non-queer families to start their families. However, the coverage mandates would raise annual premiums for employer-sponsored plans by over $330 million, as analyzed by the California Health Benefits Review Program. The California Association of Health Plans goes further to state that these coverage mandates would be the most expensive out of all 16 considered, adding up to $1 billion to the premiums.
The bill’s objectives are to make California the state that subsidizes surrogate pregnancies. The gay advocacy group, Men Having Babies, created this pet project, which aims to provide gay men with “educational and financial support to achieve parenthood through surrogacy.” However, this won’t be California’s first experience with surrogacy. In 2014, California forced insurers to pay for infertility treatments.
State involvement in surrogate pregnancies is profoundly troubling on many levels. Surrogacy is exploitative and often deeply harmful to the women it impacts, with surrogate mothers’ remaining financially responsible for any medical issues arising from the pregnancy. This legal amendment would do nothing else other than make gay men have children at no cost and puts women, particularly those from lower-income backgrounds, in danger. Worst of all, it would create a new market for surrogates and extra babies’ use and the repercussions that come with it. State governments and insurance companies have no place in this lucrative and illegal market of surrogate babies.
It appears that California Democrats will continue to spend taxpayers’ money on pet projects while ignoring all of the harm and havoc they create. This bill may be the final nail in the coffin for anyone that ever believed the Left could govern.
