11th Circuit Denies Tax Deduction For Gay Man's Reproductive Expenses

Kevin Newsom,  President Trump's recent appointee to the Eleventh Circuit has managed to disappoint a major LGBT organization with his very first decision. In Morrissey v United States Judge Newsom wrote :

Was the money that a homosexual man paid to father children through in vitro fertilization—and in particular, to identify, retain, compensate, and care for the women who served as an egg donor and a gestational surrogate—spent “for the purpose of affecting” his body's reproductive “function” within the meaning of I.R.C. § 213? And second: In answering the statutory question “no,” and thus in disallowing the taxpayer's deduction of his IVF-related expenses, did the IRS violate his right to equal protection of the laws either by infringing a “fundamental right” or by engaging in unconstitutional discrimination?

We hold that the costs of the IVF-related procedures at issue were not paid for the purpose of affecting the taxpayer's own reproductive function—and therefore are not deductible—and that the IRS did not violate the Constitution in disallowing the deduction.

Mary Bonauto, Civil Rights Project Director of GLAD (GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders...