SAN FRANCISCO —— The California Medical Association, which came under fire from gay rights groups after it filed legal papers backing two San Diego doctors who refused to provide artificial insemination to a lesbian, has withdrawn the controversial brief.

CMA chief executive Jack Lewin said that while the professional group still thinks the doctors should be allowed to argue in court that they refused to treat Guadalupe Benitez on religious grounds, the brief was retracted because of a recent California Supreme Court ruling holding that businesses must treat same-sex couples the same as married couples under the state's domestic partnership law.

Benitez sued the North Coast Women's Care Medical Group in Vista for discrimination after alleging doctors Christine Brody and Douglas Fenton refused to inseminate her because of her sexual orientation. She turned to another doctor outside her health plan and eventually gave birth to a son.

The clinic's doctors have argued that they should not have to treat women like Benitez because inseminating an unmarried woman contradicts their religious convictions.

—— Associated Press