Beckies Spot

It’s interesting what you can find on the web.

Today at work, I was researching my whole band of physicians and found an interesting topic on a side note.  It was literally a link on the side of a web page.  It looked interesting enough, so I clicked on a tagline that said “Infertility Insurance.”  Interesting enough to pass some time, so I started to read.

Did you know that multiple women have won lawsuits because either their jobs did not offer insurance that covered infertility (so they sued their employers) or because the insurance companies did not offer the employers the opportunity to purchase insurance plans with infertility coverage (so they sued the insurande companies)?  Interesting, isn’t it?  I sat their reading saying “huh” for about half an hour, and then printed the 6 pages of the article to bring home and finish reading.

Now, I know that some people out there are sitting there, saying “Are you kidding me?”  They will argue it saying that people shouldn’t be allowed to abuse the system like that….mind you, the system that we, as employees pay for.  Some of us will pay far more in to it that we will ever get out of it.  In my own battle with infertility, I have considered it to be a disability.  For men and women who suffer from infertility, they suffer physically and emotionally.  For me, I can deal with the physical pain that is caused by the complications that do not allow me to be a natural mother.  Emotionally, I am scarred, and will be for life.  Perhaps, some day, I will be blessed with children of my very own…created by God of Brent and I.  Perhaps.  But I am not sure that even that will erase the years and years of pain I have endured in my quest to be a mommy.  I have never just ‘wanted’ to be a mommy.  I have always desired to be one, from the depths of my being.  I have always, since I first knew what mommies were, felt as though it were my purpose.  Everything I have done in my life could have been done by someone else.  If I hadn’t been created, someone else could have done every little thing I have ever done.  No exceptions.  But this….this would have been my purpose.  I have faced many realities in the last few years regarding God’s decisions and timing.  But, that does not mean I have given up.  Knowing that as I am, medically speaking, I cannot conceive and carry children….it is damaging.  Physically and emotionally.

That had always been my opinion…..apparently the Supreme Court agrees with me.  In the article I was reading, it spoke of how the Supreme Court issued a ruling in 1998 (Bragdon vs Abbott) that backed the women who claimed that reproduction was a vital part of being a human.  You see, according to the ADA (American Disabilities Act), a person becomes disabled if he or she has an impairment that substancially limits one or more major life activities.  The ability to reproduce is considered a major life activity.  Therefore, the Supreme Court ruled that people (male and female alike) that experience infertility have the right to sue their employer for discrimination if the employer chooses to contract for an insurance plan that does not offer infertility assistance.  A person also has the right to sue the insurance company if they do not offer a plan that includes infertility assistance, thus disabling the employer from offering the choice.

Again I say, very interesting.

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