Lesbians, bisexuals, transgender people, and single women in Spain will now have access to IVF treatment through the country’s public health care system.

The Spanish health minister, Carolina Darias, signed an order today mandating that these groups have the ability to obtain IVF, the Associated Press reported. 

While IVF is free through the Spanish healthcare system, it has only been available to partnered heterosexual women for the past six years, a rule put in place by the Conservative Popular Party. Anyone else has had to pay private companies to receive the same care.

Now, however, the country is under a socialist government that has demonstrated a commitment to advancing equality, according to the Associated Press, which also pointed out that the government has record number of women serving in the Cabinet.

The move comes only a few months after France passed a similar measure. 

After signing in Spain, Darias tweeted, “We have restored rights that should never have been abolished” and declared, “We are a government that fulfills its commitments.”

 

The president of Spain’s alliance of LGBTQ rights’ groups, Uge Sangil, celebrated the move at the ceremony where the order was signed.

“Let no one doubt that expanding reproductive rights is expanding human rights,” Sangil said.

ILGA-Europe–the European segment of the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association, also showed enthusiasm for the move.

“We welcome the expansion of IVF rights to single women, lesbians, bisexuals and trans people in Spain,” the organization tweeted, “and congratulate the activists who have long fought for it!”

filed under: equality news, LGBTQ+ families, lesbian families, transgender families, bisexual families, LGBTQ+ reproduction, IVF, assisted reproductive technology