The 2016 policy is being replicated across the country, and provides valuable lessons for reproductive healthcare globally
A decade ago, the Health Minister of the Catalan government Toni Comín announced that the public health system of Barcelona, Gerona, Lérida and Tarragona would provide in-vitro fertilization (IVF) for women without male partners. Until then, most single women and lesbian couples had to resort to expensive private healthcare for the treatment.In the public system. heterosexual couples were prioritized. “No matter who wants it, we will answer to the demand,” Comín said at the time. “We are talking about a right.”
Reporting for El País, Rebecca Mouzo delves into the history of this groundbreaking policy, which stemmed from a law passed in the Catalan government in 2014 to guarantee the rights of the LGBTQIA+ community. Mouzo details the political hurdles – from the economic crisis and healthcare cuts under Mariano Rajoy’s government to innovative solutions, such as group visits and improved fertility protocol. These learnings helped the reproductive medicine team at the Puigvert-Hospital Sant Pau Foundation in Barcelona improve the success rate of IVF in single women and lesbian couples from an initial 6 per cent to 20 per cent – in line with the outcomes for heterosexual women and their male partners. The policy has since been replicated across Spain and in 2021, the Ministry of Health published an order guaranteeing access to assisted reproduction within the public healthcare system for women without male partners, as well as transgender people with the capacity to gestate.
To date, Sant Pau-Fundación Puigvert hospital has helped at least 1,700 women conceive over a thousand babies. “It’s a very necessary service,” Victoria Blum, a mother who conceived her daughter Roma through the program, told El País. “I don’t know if I would have been able to try so many times through private healthcare.”
Froio on the selection:
Reproductive rights are under attack in many parts of the world – and single women and lesbian couples still face a number of barriers if they choose to become parents. This story, grounded in data and evidence, shows the impact of a decade of free reproductive health services for all. This policy has genuinely changed the lives of women in Spain and shifted cultural norms around what a family looks like.
Original article published in Spanish as “El plan que levantó el veto a la reproducción asistida a las mujeres solas o lesbianas en la pública: ‘Era una demanda social’” by Jessica Mouzo on 17 June, 2026 in El País.
El País is a major Spanish daily newspaper.
