WAKISO, UGANDA — Just over a year after Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni signed one of the world’s toughest LGBTQ+ laws, another bill currently under parliamentary review has reignited concerns about rights lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and other sexual and gender diverse people. minorities in the country – as well as single parents.
The Human Assisted Reproductive Technologies Bill, which awaits its second reading, only allows “men and women” facing infertility or difficulty conceiving to access assisted reproductive technology . The bill also requires doctors administering such treatments to establish that a person suffers from infertility or another health problem affecting their ability to reproduce.
Supporters of the bill say it creates necessary regulations around assisted reproductive technologies such as in vitro fertilization, commonly known as IVF. But Uganda’s sexual and gender minorities, as well as some medical professionals and human rights activists, see it as part of a broader anti-LGBTQ+ campaign, shaped in part by foreign conservative groups.
They fear that if the bill passes, it will make it even harder for sexual and gender minorities, already facing medical discrimination, to access fertility care.
The anti-homosexuality law, signed last year, provides for life imprisonment and even, in some cases, the death penalty and various other penalties for attempted, suspected or incited homosexuality.
The language of the Reproductive Technologies Bill is unfairly restrictive, says Resty Nalwanga, a Kampala-based human rights lawyer. “(It) simply deprives divorced, widowed and other single categories of the opportunity to become parents,” she says.
Opendi Sarah Ochieng, the lawmaker and former health minister who introduced the bill to Parliament in October 2023, did not respond to questions about whether the bill would disadvantage sexual and gender minorities. She told the Global Press Journal via WhatsApp that the bill is part of her broader campaign against infertility stigma, which she has championed since 2016, when she was Uganda’s health minister.
The bill would provide safeguards to a practice that needs them, says Dr. Joseph Muhumuza, an obstetrician and gynecologist at Roswell Women and Children Hospital in Kampala. He says fertility doctors operate without any regulation. According to him, the bill would “protect the rights of the patient”, particularly in the event of complications or errors.
Still, he says, he finds it restrictive, especially for single people. He says he’s uncomfortable speculating about how the bill might affect sexual and gender minorities, saying sexuality isn’t typically a topic he discusses with his patients.
For Pepe Julian Onziema, a transgender man and human rights activist, the problem goes well beyond a simple piece of legislation. He says the bill is part of a broader wave of anti-LGBTQ+ policies taking root in Uganda and influenced by outside conservative groups, many of which are based in the United States.
“Their motivations have been to fill any gaps that could give the community the right to exist and to block our reproductive rights,” he says.
Many advocates for sexual and gender minorities in Uganda view the opposition of some U.S.-based organizations to comprehensive sexuality education as a clear desire to create an atmosphere of hatred against sexual and gender minorities. One such organization is Family Watch International, a U.S.-based organization that has worked for decades to limit these types of programs in Uganda.
Opendi, who sponsored the bill, told the Global Press Journal she found the allegations about foreign influence “insulting.”
Ugandans who support the bill say it fills a gap in the country.
“We cannot have a service that is unregulated and yet highly sensitive to our true definition of a Ugandan family. Family is a man and his wife(s) and their children,” says Bukirwa Irene, a married mother of three who supports the bill.
Just across the border in Uganda, Kenya’s Parliament is deliberating a similar bill introduced in 2022, also facing criticism from local sexual and gender minorities and human rights groups.
“(The bill) simply denies divorced, widowed, and other categories of single people the opportunity to become parents.” Human rights lawyer
Worldwide, at least 12 million babies have been born using assisted reproductive technologies since the first child was born via IVF in 1978, according to The Lancet, a leading medical journal. IVF involves fertilizing an egg with sperm outside the body and then implanting it in the patient’s uterus. It is becoming increasingly common worldwide due to infertility problems, which affect approximately 17.5% of the world’s adult population, according to the World Health Organization.
But barriers remain. Spain was one of the first countries to grant the right to adoption and assisted reproduction to same-sex couples in 2005 and 2006. But until 2021, public access to IVF in many regions required a diagnosis of infertility, making it more difficult for same-sex couples to qualify. according to a 2024 study published in the journal Demographic Research.
Still other countries have strengthened their laws regarding assisted reproductive technologies in recent decades. In 2020, Hungary passed a law banning adoption by same-sex couples. In 2023, Italy introduced a law that restricts access to surrogacy for same-sex couples, even prohibiting them from registering children born through surrogacy abroad.
In Uganda, Rose Nalukwago, a lesbian and single mother, is among those concerned about the bill. Two years ago, she gave birth after four IVF cycles and two embryo transfers.
Today, Nalukwago is almost 43 years old and wants another child. But she sees this new bill as a threat. It’s “limiting and discriminatory,” she says, excluding anyone who is non-heterosexual and married from the right to have children.
“Whether I’m married or not, single or not, queer or not, I should be able to have the right to access assisted reproductive technologies to have children,” she says.
