Frozen embryos in test tubes remain babies in Alabama: on May 3, the Alabama Supremes denied a request to rehear its ruling about this..
Look at the test tube and its contents and you may be baffled at the judgment that it contains a baby, but the Alabama Supremes' ruling is not about science, what you can see or what you think: it's about what a minority of religionists believe and want to force you to believe.
Fetal personhood rulings could nullify a pregnant patient's wishes for end-of-life care
“Recent abortion and IVF cases have highlighted the constantly changing landscape of medical decision-making and what that means for medical care. Given this shifting terrain, it is impossible to predict with any degree of certainty how a pregnant person’s end-of-life care directives will be interpreted” #Pregnancy#EndOfLife#IVF#Abortion
"The Christian nationalist movement has long used abortion as an issue to unify different strands of their movement. They know that if you can get people to vote on a single issue, you can control their vote. ...
If you dig deeper, it is really about the money and power, and not just sex."
~ Katherine Stewart, author of The Power Worshipers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism
Jason Sattler says that if you don't want to read the 920-page prescription of policies Project 2025 informs us Republicans will enact if given control of the federal government again, then read just one sentence, which sums up the whole project:
"'But the Dobbs decision is just the beginning.'
That would be the governing philosophy of a second Trump regime."
There's something seriously wrong with these #ChristianNationalist lunatics. Nothing will ever be enough for them when it comes to imposing oppressive, draconian laws related to #reproduction. They'll just continue going further and further for as long as they're allowed. The only answer is to stop them now. Opposition to #IVF is pure insanity, and out of touch with the views of the vast majority of Americans. And they know this, which is why they also oppose #democracy.
As Megan Messerly and Alice Miranda Ollstein report, the large anti-abortion lobby that comprises a huge part of the GOP base is NOT on board with GOP attempts to pretend it can be both pro-IVF and anti-abortion:
"Anti-abortion advocates worked for five decades to topple Roe v. Wade. They’re now laying the groundwork for a yearslong fight to curb in vitro fertilization."
👏🏻#Michigan Gov. Gretchen #Whitmer signs new law decriminalizing surrogacy contracts. The legislation also includes more protections for #LGBTQ+ parents and greater access to #IVF -MSNBC
#MarilynLands, a Dem who made #ReproductiveRights a centerpiece of her campaign in deeply #conservative#Alabama, won a special election to the Alabama Legislature.
Lands’ victory in the suburban district in the #DeepSouth state was celebrated by #Democrats who have attempted to portray the state #GOP as too extreme on #abortion & reproductive rights.
"Democrats have strong reason to cheer this rather amazing election result [in Alabama], particularly because it confirms, once again, that the Dobbs decision is politically radioactive for the GOP. The IVF case out of Alabama further proved that social and religious extremists are still far from done, and that their weak compatriots in Washington will readily enable them."
"On Thursday, the Republican Study Committee (RSC), a conservative caucus made up of the vast majority of the Republican majority of the House of Representatives, released their new budget. Along with raising the Social Security retirement age and decimating Medicaid, the RSC backs the Life at Conception Act, which would ban both abortion and IVF in all 50 states by stating that from the 'moment of conception' an embryo is a human being."
As Jason Sattler notes, with the IVF debacle, Republicans are trying to lie re: what their "life begins at conception" mantra really means. But supporters like Lila Rose won't let them lie: shey says,
“Politicians cannot call themselves ‘pro-life,’ affirm the truth that human life begins at the moment of fertilization, and then enact laws that allow the callous killing of these preborn children simply because they were created through IVF."
Robert B. Hubbell lists the points in the 2025 budget wish-list released yesterday by the Republican Study Committee, which comprises 80% of Republicans in the US House:
"1. Raise the age for retirement under Social Security and benefits for some beneficiaries."
"The anti-abortion movement is turning on Republican lawmakers who support bills to protect in vitro fertilization, accusing them of sanctioning murder.
As many politicians raced in recent weeks to get to the right side of public opinion on IVF, some of the country’s biggest and most influential anti-abortion groups are pushing back."
~ Megan Messerly and Alice Miranda Ollstein
Could not happen to a more desrving group of folks.
In his SOTU, President Joe Biden called out attacks on abortion and IVF. In the video linked below, Robert P. Jones notes that only 9% of Americans support a total ban on abortion. 64% say abortion should be legal in most or all cases. This is why Republicans want to hedge on what they have held up to now about IVF — which is a direct consequence of their insistence that a human person is present from the moment of conception.