The future of IVF is in jeopardy

[ShazzieB]

Today, I am a mother. But before I became a mother, I was a woman like so many others struggling to get pregnant and grappling with the emotional devastation of infertility. Yearning to build a family, I turned to in-vitro fertilization (IVF) in hopes of bringing home a baby. On my family-building journey, I was also one of the countless women who needed a lifesaving dilation and curettage procedure (D&C) for an ectopic pregnancy — a fertilized egg growing outside of the uterus — for which I also needed emergency surgery and took the immunosuppressant medication methotrexate.

Ultimately, I turned to adoption to become a parent and became an advocate supporting people who build their families in many different ways, including through fertility treatment. Following the Supreme Court’s July decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ending federally recognized abortion rights, proven medical treatments like IVF become the collateral damage of the battle to dismantle reproductive freedom. That is why our organization unequivocally supports the Right to Build Families Act in Congress, introduced by Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) along with Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Rep. Susan Wild (D-Pa.). This national legislation is urgently required to protect IVF across the country, as the end of Roe v. Wade has painfully laid bare a patchwork of reproductive freedoms defined by state borders.

Even without overt state laws prohibiting IVF procedures, the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision is having a chilling effect on people seeking IVF in certain states — as providers and patients fear legal ramifications of state abortion laws. We cannot allow state legislatures to pass laws that will block their constituents’ dreams of becoming parents. This bill guarantees that IVF will remain an option for all Americans, regardless of state reproductive policies.

Medical professionals and would-be parents are perplexed by new laws restricting reproductive freedoms, while certain state legislatures are gearing up to enact new laws that would effectively make IVF impossible through fetal “personhood” legislation. The IVF process involves creating multiple embryos in the hopes that at least one can result in the birth of a baby. But if a state defines a fertilized egg as a person, then allowing any “harm” to come to that microscopic embryo could be potentially considered manslaughter or even murder. The Dobbs decision has opened the floodgates for restrictions and by extension might inhibit standard procedures like embryo freezing. I faced agonizing decisions on what to do with the embryos created during IVF treatment — would-be parents enduring that choice don’t need the added worry of possible criminal charges.

Read more: https://thehill.com/opinion/healthcare/3778055-the-future-of-ivf-is-in-jeopardy/