This story concerns a piece of Indiana state legislation.  It starts off sounding like a typical wingnutty anti-gay, pro-family kind of thing:

An interim legislative committee is considering a bill that would prohibit gays, lesbians and single people in Indiana from using medical science to assist them in having a child.

Which is bad enough, but the details are even worse.

The bill defines assisted reproduction as causing pregnancy by means other than sexual intercourse, including intrauterine insemination, donation of an egg, donation of an embryo, in vitro fertilization and transfer of an embryo, and sperm injection.

It then requires "intended parents" to be married to each other and says an unmarried person may not be an intended parent.

Which means, in part, that infertile married couples cannot even have children through a surrogate (unless the state approves).  But it gets even worse.

A doctor cannot begin an assisted reproduction technology procedure that may result in a child being born until the intended parents have received a certificate of satisfactory completion of an assessment required under the bill. The assessment is similar to what is required for infant adoption and would be conducted by a licensed child placing agency in Indiana.

That’s right.  Under this proposed legislation, the parents have to be certified by the state.  Which means that the parents, even if married, would have to provide certain information to Indiana Council For Prudes (or whatever it will be called):

The required information includes the fertility history of the parents, education and employment information, personality descriptions, verification of marital status, child care plans and criminal history checks. Description of the family lifestyle of the intended parents also is required, including participation in faith-based or church activities.

I can never understand why so many libertarians, not having a full-fledged party of their own, tend to vote conservative.  The social conservative movement, as exemplified by the proposed legislation above, is outright Orwellian.  Citizens of Indiana have to get the stamp of state approval before they can receive medical assistance in procreation?  Give me a break!  Talk about social engineering!!

UPDATE:  More on this story here.  It looks like "unauthorized reproduction" (getting pregnant through medical assistance while not married) is going to be a Class B misdemeanor.  For the parents (presumably both of them), as well as the physician.  And yes, the crime is actually called "unauthorized reproduction".

EVEN MORE:  Amanda Marcotte says: "Put Down That Turkey Baster And Put Your Hands In The Air So I Can See Your Wedding Ring!!!"

YET ONE MORE TAKE:  The proposed law would make the Virgin Mary a criminal.