Alabama, IVF, and Why i ran out of cuss words
Good morning y’all and welcome back.
The world is heavy out there, so I hope you can find some light wherever you are. Unfortunately, from me today we’re going to talk about some heavier stuff: the IVF decision in Alabama.
Bottom Line Up Front:
The Alabama Supreme Court ruled that the “wrongful death of a minor” statue applies to “unborn children who are located outside of a biological uterus at the time they are killed.” In plain English: embryos resulting from IVF are people with rights.
What is IVF?
IVF stands for In Vitro Fertilization. In short, it is a technologically-assisted means of become pregnant. This can be for various conception-related issues, because a person is trying to conceive without a partner, or with a same-sex or trans partner.
The crash course in the procedure is this: a person takes medication until ovulation, once the eggs mature (ovulation) they are harvested by a physician who then mixes them with sperm (artificial insemination), these little friends become embryos which are then placed back into the uterus and hopefully implant and become fetuses to start their journey to babyhood.
Because IVF is expensive and emotionally and physically demanding, doctors usually create more than one embryo. The frozen embryos can be stored for any number of reasons: in case the first embryos do not cooperate, in case you want to have more children later, in case you want to donate embryos to others facing infertility, in case your partner is facing a life-threatening illness and you want to keep the possibility of children open, etc). Here’s where the Alabama law comes in.
Those frozen embryos are now considered children. This opens up some interesting speculative questions (if you burn down an IVF clinic, can you be charged with hundreds of counts of murder?) and some practical problems.
What does this mean for those trying to conceive (TTC)?
In the fertility lingo TTC means “trying to conceive.” I hate a lot of these acronyms, but we’ll roll with it for now.
For those TTC, this presents several problems. How do they approach IVF? What if they miscarry—is that manslaughter? What if their embryos were stored before the Alabama law?
In the practical realm, IVF is hella expensive. Like, tens of thousands of dollars or more, and a lot of insurance won’t cover it. When it does, coverage is usually for couples with a history of “unsuccessful” (seriously, who writes these laws) heterosexual sex. Single parents and LGBTQIA+ folks tend to be on their own here.
This law could make it more expensive by having doctors collect fewer eggs and implant fewer embryos each time (meaning, instead of one $15,000 procedure getting you several potential embryos, you’re only getting one).
Another issue is that of what to do with the embryos that already exist. Do IVF clinics have to store them forever (usually IVF parents pay for this unless they opt to donate their embryos)? Do IVF clinics have to adopt out the embryos there before giving other couples fertility treatment? If so, what if the biological parents say no? What does this mean for the siblings and half siblings of the adopted embryos when they get older?
At the end of the day, embryos aren’t people. Check the science backing this decision.
Where’s the science?
Literally, there is none.
This is entirely political garbage. It’s worth noting that the politicians and activists who promote these deadly ideologies don’t have to have any kind of formal education at all. The courts that rule on them have no medical or scientific training. It is 100% grade-A, partisan-hack, political bull shit.
Mostly, this is partisan politics and attempts to win elections on the backs of women and families. At its theoretically strongest, it rests on the concept of ensoulment at conception, a religious ideology that has absolutely no place in our laws. Remember, despite what our Christian dominionist Supreme Court says, the Establishment Clause still gives us freedom from religion.
What is the GOP’s plan with this?
Remember Christian Nationalism and the Project 2025 plan to reform the United States in a very specific fascism based on political-Christianity? Yes, that’s part of this.
For decades, GOP players have been laying the groundwork for a fetal personhood narrative as a gateway to getting rid of abortion and birth control. For decades, the right has also launched a crusade to reshape the federal judiciary that would sustain this kind of judicial overreach. As a result we have not only the most conservative federal Supreme Court in 90 years but state courts as well.
Fetal personhood is a political concept that has deep roots in political Christianity (an extremist movement that uses religion as a cover) not actual Christianity (a religion). This ruling didn’t come out of nowhere, and it has a plan for where it wants to go. And you should be afraid of that.
What’s the take home point? Fetal personhood is horrifying, and you should be having nightmares about this.
Those of you who’ve been riding with my various blogs for a while know that I am a star-spangled optimist. I’m usually here to end on a cheery note and explain to you why it’s going to be ok. But not right now.
You should be on the verge of having an anxiety attack just thinking about this. Take that energy and get ready to burn everything down because if this goes to the Supreme Court, it’s going to be time to start setting stuff on fire.
This law is going to be challenged. And the Supreme Court will use that to strike down not just abortion but birth control. People will die. And any foothold these religious terrorists get is going to be a steppingstone to more, the insatiable need for control is the hallmark of this type of extremism.
What can we do?
I don’t know.
Republicans aren’t going to do anything, so yes, vote them out. But Democrats have been inept at best when it comes to stopping the rise of the right.
Biden is living in a reality that no longer exists, and his faux progressiveness isn’t going to do much. Sure, he’s better than Trump, but that’s like saying “of course I’ll take the lima beans because it’s better than the hydrochloric acid.”
We need a Congress that’s responsive and reflective of this country. We need more diversity. We need younger members of Congress (this isn’t about age, I’m a huge fan of Bernie, but Millennials and Gen Xers haven’t even had the chance to lead because folks like Steny Hoyer have been in Congress longer than I’ve been alive).
We need fresh solutions for a new time. Lean on Democrats to push out the ones who aren’t working for you, and lean on every Republicans until they come back from the radical abyss.
And if that doesn’t work: refuse to have sex with any woman who supports this nonsense and any man at all until they all realize that their fate is tied into our lives. History shows that sex strikes are effective, which is probably why men have spent centuries grooming women to believe that women owe them sex because God said so.
Take action wherever you can and however you can, because if you think this is bad, we’re barely in chapter one.
