Marriage and fertility holidays for same-sex couples

(15 June 2009)

A Spanish clinic and a travel agency have teamed up to offer a gay-marriage-and-fertility deal. 

The Instituto Bernabeu (fertility clinic) and gay and lesbian travel agency Rainbow Travel are launching their special package holidays to Spain this week.

British lesbians increasingly travel to clinics in Spain for artificial insemination, which has become more difficult in Britain since sperm donors lost the right to remain anonymous in 2005.

"We noticed the increase in British women coming to us as soon as the law was changed," said Dr Rafael Bernabeu, founder of the Instituto Bernabeu clinic in Alicante, eastern Spain. "Here we can still offer that anonymity, so people are coming to us."

María José Rico, of Rainbow Travel, said: "Two women travelling to Spain so that they can have a baby are doing something that is very special to them.

"We want to make the experience as pleasurable as possible. The treatment does not require you to rest a lot, so we want to offer people things to do and places to stay that will make it a real holiday as well."

Rainbow Travel also help arrange same-sex marriages for holidaymakers to Spain.