Author: Matthew Shadle

So far it has not received much media attention, being drowned out by the various scandals swirling around the Obama administration, but in May the California Assembly passed a bill, AB-460, requiring insurance companies to provide infertility treatment to same-sex couples. The bill was introduced in February and is now awaiting discussion in committee in the Senate. Arguing that since health insurance already covers infertility treatment, including artificial reproductive technologies such as artificial insemination (although not in vitro fertilization), for opposite-sex couples, equality demands that the same coverage be extended to same-sex couples. Whatever one’s views on homosexuality and same-sex marriage, AB-460 illustrates the complex and contradictory views on sexuality, marriage, and children present in our society. Even if this bill has so far avoided the limelight, with the increasing acceptance of same-sex marriage and the Supreme Court’s two upcoming decisions on the issue (Hollingsworth v. Perry and United States v. Windsor), we as a church and a nation will not be able to avoid a discussion of how we understand the relationship between marriage and procreation. The debate over same-sex marriage revolves around the proper definition of marriage. Arguments that marriage should be limited to partners of the opposite sex almost always hinge on the procreation of children being a defining characteristic of marriage. For example, in their document Between Man and Woman, the U.S. Catholic bishops write,...