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Photo: Josean Rivera

The new in-vitro fertilization coverage implemented in Chile is being questioned for its exclusion of lesbian couples. LGBT organizations denounce it as an illegal and discriminatory act.

The director of the National Health Fund, Marcelo Mosso, stated that "the measure, for the moment, will only be focused on heterosexual couples and in relation to homosexual couples it will be a matter to be studied later."

The sexual diversity organization Movilh, through a letter to the Minister of Health, Emilio Santelices, requested the cessation of all forms of discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity, or marital status.

[READ ALSO: Lesbophobia reported at a Chilean supermarket]

"It's heterosexual couples; that's the majority of couples we have in the country. Therefore, we are addressing that issue today. The problem with lesbian couples, for example, is that they require sperm donation—we will have to study that further," Santelices stated on a Chilean television program.

In response to the measure, Daniela Andrade, spokesperson for Movilh, stated: “It is alarming that there is an attempt to create new public policies that go hand in hand with the institutionalization of new forms of discrimination that violate the laws and international agreements of the State of Chile. Today, we have requested, through a letter, that the Ministry of Health reconsider and put an end to these exclusions.”

Movilh concluded that “the exclusion of same-sex couples from the new fertilization program” “violates the Friendly Settlement Agreement (ASA) that the State of Chile signed with the organization before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).”