Kettering Reproductive Medicine is billed as “Dayton’s only full-service reproductive center with all services at one convenient location.” It had 4,419 patient visits in 2009, and provides services such as in vitro fertilization and intrauterine insemination.
In a prepared statement, KMC said the reproductive clinic’s policy had been in place for more than 10 years. Medical staff, academics, clergy and others comprised the team; their names were not immediately available, KMC said.
“This team evaluated the practices of other faith-based organizations, consulted an ethicist from a non-faith-based system, and examined the Seventh-Day Adventist Church beliefs on assisted human reproduction,” the statement reads. KMC is affiliated with the church.
After meeting several times, the team recommended that the reproductive clinic’s policy of serving only married couples, and married women under age 50, remain in place. KMC’s executive council agreed.
“Our policy was thoroughly considered,” KMC spokesman Kevin Lavoie said. “There are other centers in the United States that have a similar policy. We meet all regulatory requirements.”
“That doesn’t make it right,” said O’Reilly, 40, a film producer who has since undergone a round of fertility treatments in Cincinnati and is now pursuing domestic adoption.
She said the policy discriminates not only against her and other single women, but against homosexual couples.
She has looked into the possibility of — and plans to pursue — state legislation that would ban such a policy.
“When you encounter obvious discrimination, directed toward yourself or others, you have an obligation to speak up about it,” she said.
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