The APF lists in a press release the priorities for the new Government in the area of medically assisted procreation (MAP) and makes it clear that it "only believes in concrete measures".

The association recommends that the Government promote financial investment in the infrastructure and equipment of public MAP centres, reinforce the human resources of the teams and create "fertility units in the Azores, Algarve and/or Alentejo in order to combat the inequality in the geographical distribution of centres".

It recalls that there are couples from the Algarve and Alentejo who have to travel hundreds of kilometres to Lisbon to have access to assisted reproduction techniques.

The president of the APF, Cláudia Vieira, states in the press release that for this new term "the priorities of medically assisted procreation continue to be the same for almost a decade".

Cláudia Vieira welcomes the fact that the electoral programme of the Democratic Alliance includes a promise to reinforce investment in public MAP centres, but states that "she only believes in concrete measures".

"Until significant improvements are seen in this area and respect for the rights of NHS [National Health Service] beneficiaries, APFertilidade will continue to pressure the Government and parliamentary groups to act in accordance with what was promised in the electoral campaign", she assures.

Cláudia Vieira argues that, in order to mitigate many of the problems, "it would be enough for the Government to follow the recommendations described in the report that resulted from the working group on medically assisted procreation", which she considers to be "one of the most complete documents ever written on how to improve access to MAP and promote donations to the Public Gamete Bank", but which is "in the drawer three years later".

"One of the biggest challenges in recent years continues to be the waiting times for treatments using donations made to the Public Gamete Bank, which can reach three years", the association observes.

For the APF, gametes (sperm and eggs) should be acquired from the private system whenever necessary, in order to reduce waiting times for treatments using donations.

For all these reasons, "the people who seek APFertilidade regret that, when the State is unable to assume its role, it does not allow an alternative with private partners and closes the door to those who, without economic capacity, have to deal with the difficult outcome of not having children", adds the president of the association, which has 16,000 members.

Regarding surrogacy, which in the past had votes against from the PSD and CDS, APFertilidade admits "to being afraid that the regulation of the law will be halted".

Cláudia Vieira says that she gives "the benefit of the doubt to the Minister of Health to find a regulatory solution that responds to the flaws found in the document and pointed out by Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa".

For many women without a uterus or with problems in this organ, "surrogacy is the only alternative to fulfilling the dream of starting a biological family", she stresses.

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