By Mike Killalea, NSD president
The anti-choice right wing has become prisoners of their own contradictions. By declaring frozen embryos produced as part of the in vitro fertilization process as protected “extrauterine children,” the Alabama Supreme Court only reached the logical conclusion of the GOP’s unhinged drive to prevent every abortion in America.
Unfortunately, embryos are routinely destroyed during the IVF process, so the court ruling basically froze IVF in the state.
Well, that’s no good! Plenty of folks across the political spectrum seek IVF to build families. It usually comes at a cost of disposed embryos, though.
Kill an IVF embryo, but save a rape fetus?
So it’s ok to kill embryos to advance the cause of IVF? What about rape / incest fetuses? They are entirely protected in Alabama and the 13 other states whose draconian abortion laws harbor no exception for rape or incest. (1)
The anti-choice right wing are uncomfortably perched on the horns of a big dilemma.
IVF confusion a GOP product
“Republicans helped create the situation in their push to enact some of the most stringent anti-abortion laws in the country,” remarked Alabama Democratic state Senate Minority Leader Bobby Singleton. The result, he said, was eliminating a path for people to become parents. (2)
Facing a wave of shock and anger from the decision, the Alabama state legislature with uncharacteristic speed passed a bill granting civil and criminal immunity for in-vitro fertilization service providers and receivers. The state’s GOP governor signed the bill into law within an hour of it passing the Alabama Senate. (3)
GOP senator from MS kills national IVF bill
Meanwhile, in Washington, legislators prepared separate proposals in the US House and Senate that would seek to — wait for it! — prevent a fertilized egg from being recognized as a human life or an unborn child under state laws until it is implanted in a woman’s uterus. (2)
But the measure, which would have provided federal protections for IVF, failed in the Senate, where MS Republican Sen Chrissy Hyde-Smith blocked it. The bill had been sponsored by Sen Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., whose two daughters were carried to term via IVF. (4)
Riddle: When is a life not a life?
When is a life not a life? When it’s inconvenient for the right wing.
The right wing’s drive to remove freedom of choice from women’s health care is simply another dismal example of their determination to remove freedom of choice on pretty much everything.
We’ve seen plenty of examples of the GOP trying to discourage voting, limiting choice of voting venues by those potentially opposed to reactionary policies. The GOP, purportedly the champion of local rule, won’t allow states the freedom of choice to regulate guns.
Don’t let the confused and hypocritical right wing destroy our choices. Vote Blue every time.
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