Trying To Protect Access To IVF

Consider This from NPR

NPR

Society & Culture, Daily News, News, News Commentary

4.2 • 6.2K Ratings

🗓️ 27 February 2024

⏱️ 16 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The backlash to the Alabama Supreme Court ruling designating frozen embryos has been intense. Republicans at the state and national level have openly disagreed with the decision. And Democrats have used the ruling to hammer Republicans over reproductive rights.

Last month, Illinois Senator Tammy Duckworth introduced a bill to protect IVF. It hasn't gotten a lot of attention - until now.

Duckworth used IVF to build her own family, and has been warning since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade that the decision could lead to reproductive rights being challenged.

Duckworth discusses her legislation and whether she thinks republicans will support it.

For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.

Email us at considerthis@npr.org.

See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.

NPR Privacy Policy

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Her embryo, I must tell you, was beautiful.
0:04.0	In 2019, Brittany Stewart gave birth to a baby girl.
0:08.0	Her name is Emerson.
0:09.0	Emerson was conceived by IVF in vitro fertilization. IVF allows those who can't naturally conceive
0:16.3	and carry a pregnancy to term a chance to bear children.
0:19.7	With the help of doctors and scientists, they create embryos that hopefully grow their family.
0:24.1	Yeah, Dr. Molizia, I call her, you know, she's our fertility godmother if you will, so
0:30.3	she is directly responsible for my amazing daughter.
0:35.0	Dr Beth Molizia is an infertility specialist at Alabama Fertility in Birmingham and
0:40.4	Stewart's doctor.
0:41.4	She was a beautiful little little person.
0:45.0	Dr. Molizia and Brittany Stewart spoke with my colleague Mary Louise Kelly after the
0:49.1	Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos are children and someone who
0:53.7	discards them can be held liable for wrongful death. That puts Stewart and her
0:58.8	doctor in an untenable position. Stewart has one embryo left from her first round of IVF. That
1:06.2	embryo is in a freezer in Birmingham and Stuart currently lives in Virginia. She could
1:11.8	fly back to Alabama to get a transfer having the
1:14.2	embryo placed in her uterus to see if it'll develop and if she'll get pregnant,
1:18.1	but that new ruling in Alabama has Stewart hesitant about attempting this.
1:22.1	She was a beautiful embryo, you know, but has Stewart hesitant about attempting this.
1:22.8	She was a beautiful embryo, you know, but yeah, I've got the first picture of her and
1:27.9	she's probably a hundred cells, right?
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from NPR, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of NPR and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.