From 2020, unintentional childless couples in Bavaria can count on a government grant for the costs of artificial fertilization. A request from the FDP, CSU and Freie Wähler (free voters) was supported by all parliamentary groups of the Bavarian state parliament Wednesday.

Such a funding program has existed at federal level in Germany for around seven years. So far, families in Bavaria have not benefited from this because the federal government links its subsidy to simultaneous participation by the respective federal state. According to the application, the costs were estimated at 5.8 million euros annually for the state of Bavaria.

So far, strict criteria have applied to federal money. Only married, heterosexual couples receive full funding. Unmarried heterosexual couples are supported to a lesser extent. Gay couples do not get anything. How exactly the criteria will look like in Bavaria has yet to be clarified.

Depending on the chosen method, artificial fertilization costs up to several thousand euros per try. Statutory health insurance companies currently cover at least half of these costs - for married couples of a certain age. The federal government funding covers 25 percent of the remaining costs for the first three or four attempts - but only if the respective federal state equally covers 25 percent.

According to current statistics, more than six million Germans remain unintentionally childless. For Bavaria, the parliamentarians expect the support to provide up to 1,000 additional births of artificially conceived children annually.