CANBERRA, April 19, 2002 (LSN.ca) – Australian Prime Minister John Howard said Friday that there is “a very strong likelihood” the government will introduce changes to the federal Sex Discrimination Act allowing state governments to restrict artificial procreation treatments to married women and heterosexual couples. The comments came a day after the High Court dismissed an appeal by the country’s Catholic Bishops Conference that sought to overturn a lower court ruling allowing single women and lesbians full access to fertility treatments such as in vitro fertilization.
Howard explained his stance against allowing the procedure to single women and lesbians saying, “Where you are deliberately creating a situation where a child will not have the opportunity of a father, we think that’s bad policy.” The seven justices of the High Court dismissed the case in a unanimous decision on the grounds that the bishops “did not have jurisdiction to appeal in the case” and not did consider the merits of the two sides’ arguments.
See the AP coverage: https://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20020419/ap_wo_en_ge/australia_fertility_rights_6