A woman is at the center of a heated online debate after spending $45,000 on a banned baby procedure.
Caitlin Bailey, a 31-year-old single mother of three, has two sons and a daughter. But she always envisioned having two boys and two girls - and when that dream didn’t happen naturally, she turned to medical technology abroad.
Because elective sex selection is prohibited in Australia due to ethical concerns, Bailey flew to California, USA, to undergo treatment with fertility specialist Dr. Daniel Potter, facilitated by the agency Gender Selection Australia.
Her decision has stirred intense public reaction, but Bailey says the criticism is misplaced. Speaking on The Fox’s Fifi, Fev & Nick, the social media influencer, who has 60,000 followers, revealed that she anticipated the backlash but stands by her choice because "it was [her] body, [her] family".
“I can assure you that I’m a good person and I love my kids. I would do anything for my children, at the end of the day they are the most important thing in the world to me. I’m not doing this to make other people upset or cause controversy,” she continued, cited by News.com.au.
“I purely made this choice for me. There are so many different arguments and opinions. It does hurt my feelings when I see negative comments. I don’t want that, and I don’t mean to hurt these people," she added.
In Australia, sex selection is illegal except for rare medical exemptions, such as preventing inherited gender-specific conditions like muscular dystrophy.
A brief window between 1999 and 2004 allowed for non-medical gender selection in New South Wales, but the practice has since been re-banned nationwide.
Bailey has openly documented her experience on social media, not to promote gender selection, she says, but to shed light on an option she believes isn’t often discussed.
“I’m not telling people, ‘You should all do sex-selection, and you should do this too.’ I’m just saying it’s an option,” she explained. “We’ve got the technology and medical advancement to make this an option.”
Radio host Fifi Box supported Bailey during the interview, reflecting on her own IVF journey. She admitted that when trying for her second child, she briefly thought it would be easier to have another daughter and called it a “shame” that Bailey felt she had to justify her decision.
Much of the recent attention has focused on the cost, a staggering $45,000, which Bailey said she covered using her savings.
She argued that she could have easily spent that much on IVF, regardless, and believes this route was ultimately more efficient.
“I think it’s more responsible to do it this way than try to have another three or four kids, and if I kept having boys, I would still feel like I wouldn’t have felt that content feeling,” she explained.