SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – The California Supreme Court delved into the world of religion June 14, agreeing to decide whether doctors can deny treatment to patients who offend their religious beliefs.

The justices decided to review the case of two Vista fertility doctors, Christine Brody and Douglas Fenton, who refused to artificially inseminate a lesbian woman. The Christian doctors, however, do not object to treating married patients requiring insemination.

“These physicians do not believe that it is necessarily appropriate for a woman to have a baby out of wedlock,” the doctors’ attorney, Robert Tyler, said. “Should a Christian be forced to artificially inseminate an unmarried woman when it goes contrary to their sincerely held religious beliefs?”

Tyler said religious freedom should prevail.

Jennifer Pizer, an attorney with the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund who’s representing the plaintiff, Guadalupe “Lupita” Benitez, said it is discrimination under state law for the doctors to refuse treatment.

The core issue of the case, she said, “is whether religious beliefs provide a free pass or an exception to the civil rights law.”

Pizer noted that doctors are allowed to opt out of end-of-life procedures but shouldn’t be allowed to say that they’ll “pull the plug based on whether you’re married or not.”

Federal and state rules also allow doctors, because of religious beliefs, to object to performing abortions.

The California Medical Association told the lower courts that legal and ethical standards prohibit physicians from discriminating, but said they can refuse to perform certain procedures on religious grounds if they refuse such treatment for all patients. The association backed the two fertility doctors, but later withdrew its support.

A state appeals court last year sided with Brody and Fenton. Benitez, who was artificially inseminated elsewhere and now has a 4-year-old boy, appealed.

The Supreme Court justices neither commented on the case June 14 nor said when they would decide the outcome.

The case is North Coast Women’s Care Medical Group v. Superior Court, S142892.