Jessica Valenti: The GOP's IVF Lie

[Nevilledog]

https://jessica.substack.com/p/the-gops-ivf-lie

It looks like Sen. Katie Britt is doing damage control. Just a few weeks after introducing legislation that would establish a government-run website that would collect data on pregnant women, Britt is pushing new legislation she claims will “protect” IVF. Co-sponsored with Sen. Ted Cruz, Britt says the IVF Protection Act “affirms both life and liberty.”

“As a mom, I know firsthand that there is no greater blessing than our children, and IVF helps families across our nation experience the joyous miracle of life, grow, and thrive,” Britt said in a statement.

We all know what this is about. Ever since the massive national backlash to Alabama’s Supreme Court ruling that frozen embryos are “extrauterine children,” Republicans have been desperate to convince voters that they’re not interested in targeting IVF.

But here’s the thing: the “IVF Protection Act” doesn’t actually protect IVF. In fact, it allows states to restrict the practice!

Let’s take a closer look at the language of the legislation. The bill defines IVF as “the practice whereby eggs are collected from ovaries and manually fertilized by sperm, for later placement inside of a uterus.” This limited definition is deliberate: No one is objecting to the process of retrieving eggs and fertilizing them, the issue is what happens to frozen embryos.

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