Unnatural methods of conception of same-sex parents

Same-sex couples who wish to have a child must have recourse to someone other than their regular sexual partner in order to conceive a child. There are different ways of conceiving children, i.e. through surrogacy, artificial insemination, in vitro fertilization, and new methods that are currently being developed.

Not all fertility clinics will assist same-sex couples to have children; there are concerns that role models of both sexes are not present in the home for the child, that there will be less parental input from the non-biological parent, and that the child will be unhappy at school because his peers will taunt him about his non-standard family.

In 1990 a British court ruled that no group of women could be excluded from assistance in reproduction. Private donor arrangements are not legally recognized, so the non-biological co-parent has no legal rights to the child.

According to UCLA Williams Institute School of Law:

"In 2016, an estimated 705,000 United States households were headed by a same-sex couple (1.1% of all coupled household), including 346,000 male same-sex couples and 359,000 female same-sex couples. Approximately half of these same-sex households included married couples (approximately 357,000); the remaining half (approximately 348,000) were unmarried cohabitating couples. In comparison, over 90% of different-sex (i.e., male/female) cohabitating couples were married.

Between 2014 and 2016, 16.2% of all same-sex couples, 8.1% of same-sex male couples and more than one in five same-sex female couples were raising children, with higher rates of childrearing among married same-sex couples. Based on 2016 household counts, there were an estimated 114,000 same-sex couples raising children in 2016, including 28,000 male same-sex couples and 86,000 female same-sex couples. Like male/female couples with children, the majority (68.0%) of same-sex couples with children were raising biological children. However, same-sex couples with children were far more likely than male/female couples with children to have an adopted child (21.4% versus 3.0%) and/or a foster child (2.9% versus 0.4%). Married male same-sex couples with children were the most likely of all couples with children to be raising adopted and foster children." (https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/publications/same-sex-parents-us/)