Early last week, the constitutional court ruled that a ban on IVF treatment for single women and women in same-sex marriages is unconstitutional. With this, the top court resolved the ur-cause of the gender and family inequality that has plagued Muddy Hollows since 2001.
Back then, the last Drnovšek government tried to enact equal access to IVF for women regardless of their marital status. The move was thought of as a simple and logical expansion of a well-established right. But it turned out to be the spark that lit the fire of a misogynist and (soon thereafter) homophobic culture war that lasted for the next quarter of a century.
During the last 25 years (almost) the focus was primarily on gay marriages and adoptions. In large part, this was because equal access to IVF was rejected in 2001, causing the government to try to up the ante and pass an entirely new family code three years later. That legislative motherlode would have not only secured access to IVF for all women but also legalise gay marriages and adoptions.
Left-wing traditionalist
Predictably, the legislation was never adopted. It faced strong political and astroturf opposition (with the Roman Catholic church being extremely active both in front and behind the scenes). There was the issue of timing. Parliamentary elections were just around the corner with the liberal government PM Tone Rop (Janez Drnovšek was elected President in 2002) was getting ever more unpopular.
Even though the government nominally enjoyed a two-thirds majority in the parliament, senior coalition leadership saw the writing on the wall and didn’t really put their backs into it. But just as importantly, it became painfully obvious that the fault lines between progressives and traditionalists in Slovenia do not even remotely resemble the left-right divide of the body politic.
To put it bluntly, the liberal left has many more traditionalists in their midst than the right wing has people of progressive outlook. In hindsight, none of this is surprising, of course. But at the time it came as quite the shock.
Primc of darkness
At the centre of the shockwaves (in addition to liberal bloc’s hubris and ineptitude) was one Aleš Primc. A disturbingly non-descript social conservative, whom you’d be forgiven for missing in a crowd. But the soft-spoken right-wing activist provided a chillingly effective blend of populism and misogyny. And built himself a political platform in the process.
Following the initial defeat, there were other attempts at legalising gay marriage. And it didn’t matter if the new bill included the right of gay couples to adopt children or if it specifically excluded it. Every single attempt failed.
But ensuring all women have equal access to IVF? That was never touched again. Not with a ten-foot pole. Funny that.
On one hand, there is a logical-ish explanation for that. IVF was already available to a large part of the society. And since trying the legislative route once more was all but certain to re-activate The Primc of Darkness and probably hand him one more victory.
Why IVF ban was never seen as a problem
But on the other hand, the left-liberal bloc had no qualms about suffering through another dose of whoop-ass when it came to LGBT rights. In fact, they happily went in for seconds.
Was it virtue signalling? Or maybe the political arithmetic simply looked more promising. Either way, specifically women’s rights took a back seat for nearly 25 years and no-one had anything to show for it. Not only that, very few people saw that as a problem unto its own.
Which is probably the clearest example of how systemic misogyny and traditional understanding of gender roles are entrenched on the political left as well. Call it the patriarchy and pengovsky will not argue with you.
But before this here blogger goes all Ezekiel 25:17 on everyone who kept dragging their heels (or was that knuckles?) over the past quarter-century, let us take a look at the actual ruling of the constitutional court.
Simple, really
The challenge to the limitations of the IVF legislation was brought several years ago by progressive activists, the Office of the Advocate of the Principle of Equality and Levica party. And given how straightforward the ruling is, it seems reasonable to think that the court was effectively waiting for the legislative environment to change sufficiently to reverse the obviously discriminatory stipulations.
It went slightly below radar as it took place between two waves of the pandemic, but the court took a crack at the way IVF procedures were set up in 2021. Back then, it overruled a 43-years-of-age cap on health insurance coverage for IVF treatment.
At the time, it may have seemed a technicality (though one that was no doubt of huge importance to the plaintiff), but it did suggest that the entire IVF system was built on a set of deeply flawed and arbitrary assumptions.
A bit further down the road, the constitutional court legalised LGBT marriages and adoptions. This landmark ruling pawed the way for the long-sought changes to the family code. And it was lining up everyone else’s right to get hitched and/or be a parent, that made the single-women exception to IVF stick out like a fucking sore thumb.
Conservative judge taking one for the team
And just to illustrate just how straightforward the ruling was, of the three openly conservative judges, two didn’t even bother to vote, while the third wrote such a flaccid dissenting opinion that even he himself probably doesn’t buy it. It is as if it was judge Šorli’s turn to take one for the team and he couldn’t really be bothered to go beyond the barest of minimums.
At any rate, the constitutional court now instructed the parliament to get this discriminatory IVF shit sorted out inside of a year. And the coalition already promised to make haste.
Seeing how they enjoy a comfortable majority in the parliament, and how just about everything is a culture war issue these days, there probably will not be many dissenters on the government side this time around. Not in the least, because the Big Bird is desperate to offset the political damage his half-arsed reforms (or the lack thereof) are inflicting.
Profiles in courage? Not really…
So, for lack of other far-reaching achievements to show for, at the very least this government can claim that by the end of its term, it will have removed a couple of particularly large illiberal and socially regressive roadblock. Which, you know, fair.
But before the Big Bird and his coalition enter into a congratulatory circle-jerk, pengovsky would like to note that it took more than two decades to finally get to this point. Also, that nobody even tried to re-legislate IVF for single women for a quarter-century, and that these changes are the result of a shift in legal doctrine rather than a successful political effort.
All in all, a profile in courage on the part of the political class, this was not.
And if you really want a murky outlook, maybe the reason all this can come to pass is not because the conservatives have finally seen the light. They most certainly haven’t, case in point NSi’s erstwhile presidential candidate Janez Cigler Kralj, who appeared on national telly the other day with some really stale “designer babies” bullshit take on IVF.
Finally, someone thought of the children
But at the very least, an important subset of Slovenian women will now be able to have children, should they wish so. And in a society, where those same right-wing “won’t someone think of the children” demagogues are so gravely concerned about falling fertility rates and the supposed migrant invasion, surely they should be happy that more native women can now bear children, right?
Right?
