UPPSALA, Sweden, July 26 (UPI) -- A Swedish city is being sued for denying a lesbian artificial insemination because her partner had already tried and failed to become pregnant, officials say.
Uppsala's health service rejected the woman for the procedure after her partner was denied a fourth attempt at insemination because she had passed the maximum age allowed by the city health authority, The Local reported Saturday.
Her younger partner had decided that she would try to become pregnant in place of the older partner.
"As we see it we have treated them as a couple. Should you have double the number of opportunities to get pregnant just because you are a lesbian couple?" said Ulf Hansson, senior physician at the hospital.
The couple reported the incident to the Ombudsman against Discrimination on grounds of Sexual Orientation (HomO).
The agency is demanding that the city pay $33,156 in compensation to the couple.
"We consider the grounds on which the couple were refused to be inconsistent with current discrimination legislation," said HomO spokeswoman Christine Giljam.
