Married lesbian couple who won legal victory against five-figure ‘gay tax’ for NHS fertility treatment say they ‘cannot wait’ to have children
- Megan and Whitney Bacon-Evans won their landmark legal action against NHS
A married lesbian couple who won their landmark legal battle against a five-figure ‘gay tax’ for NHS fertility treatment have today said they ‘cannot wait’ to have children.
Megan Bacon-Evans, 36, and Whitney Bacon-Evans, 35, withdraw their High Court discrimination case against NHS Frimley Integrated Care Board (ICB) after the local health branch offered same-sex female couples equal access to IVF.
The social media stars, who appeared on TV show Say Yes To The Dress, had launched their legal war after learning lesbian couples had to pay for 12 months of expensive private fertility treatment – that can cost between £25,000 and £50,000, they claimed – before being offered help on the NHS.
By contrast, heterosexual couples just have to tell doctors they have been trying to conceive for two years to get free IVF. Last week, NHS Frimley ICB said it would be seeking to address the inequality.
Now Megan and Whitney, from Windsor, Berkshire, have told of their delight with Whitney telling the BBC: ‘We’re really excited we’re going to be expanding our family… We can’t wait to have this experience together.’
Megan Bacon-Evans, 36, and Whitney Bacon-Evans, 35, have withdrawn a High Court case against their local NHS branch after it finally offered same-sex female couples equal access to IVF
Megan pictured during fertility treatment. She said lesbian couples had experienced a ‘gay tax’ which saw them forking out tens of thousands of pounds for fertility treatment before getting support on the NHS
The couple, who are known on social media as ‘Wegan’, previously said the NHS’s decision was ‘a great step to achieving fertility equality’ that made them ‘very hopeful’ for the future.
READ MORE: We just want to be mums… married lesbian couple’s legal win against ‘gay tax’ on fertility treatment – after they were told they would have to pay to ‘prove’ infertility before being eligible for NHS help
Health officials last week announced a new online tool to access available IVF slots across England to cut a ‘postcode lottery’ for waiting times for all couples. Megan and Whitney, have more than 150,000 followers on TikTok.
But when the couple wanted to start a family, their local NHS service in Frimley said they had to spend thousands of pounds on artificial inseminations at a private clinic before accessing NHS help.
‘All we want is to be mums, but we’re being discriminated against for our sexuality … and pushed into the private sector,’ said Megan when they launched a change.org petition in 2020.
The campaign caught the eye of law firm Leigh Day and in November 2021, they launched a discrimination case against the NHS Frimley Integrated Care Board (ICB). It became a landmark legal test case for the NHS’s treatment of LGBTQ+ families.
The publicity around the case played a ‘major role’ in the Government’s move in July last year to expand access to NHS fertility treatment for same-sex couples and single women.
Speaking to the BBC today, Megan said the pair had been ‘shocked’ to discover the ‘discrimination’ gay and lesbian couples faced ‘considering we can get married and we’re treated as equal in the eyes of the law but then when it comes to having a family it doesn’t transpire that far’.
The social media stars said they will continue with their campaign as they seek to bring about ‘fertility equality’
But a judge’s decision was delayed as Frimley ICB denied discrimination and requested time to consider its policy.
Now, it has volunteered to give same-sex female couples the same access to fertility treatment as heterosexual couples, after a two-year review. It is due to hold a public meeting on the issue in November and a draft proposal is expected in the coming months, with the rules set to be changed by early 2024.
‘When we started out, we didn’t think we would achieve equality overnight and the fact that in 2.5 years we went from feeling like this issue was completely ignored, to taking the ICB to the high court, to the Government promising to offer equal access to IVF, is beyond what we could have hoped for,’ the couple told The Guardian.
Meanwhile, Whitney today said that despite their legal victory, the couple would still continue with their campaign.
‘Our campaigning is not finished,’ she told the BBC. ‘This is a victory. We’re taking it as a victory but there is still so much to do in this space. We’re not going to stop until fertility equality is achieved as it should be.’
Katherine O’Brien, of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service, commended Megan and Whitney’s ‘tenacity’. She added: ‘Individuals shouldn’t be required to mount legal challenges in order to access equitable healthcare. The impact of these policies can be truly devastating. The need for reform across the country is urgent and overdue.’
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman last week said: ‘Our Women’s Health Strategy for England sets out our ten-year ambitions for boosting health and wellbeing and improving how the health and care system listens to women and girls.
‘The strategy contained a number of important changes and future ambitions to improve the variations in access to NHS-funded fertility services including improving same-sex access – which we remain committed to and expect to start this year.’