IVF treatment faces 'clear and present danger' from US anti-abortion effort [View all]
Source: The Guardian
IVF treatment faces clear and present danger from US anti-abortion effort
Warning from reproductive rights advocate comes as US states pass or debate legislation that would give full rights to embryos
Stephanie Kirchgaessner in Washington
@skirchy
Thu 12 May 2022 07.30 BST
Last modified on Thu 12 May 2022 07.31
In vitro fertilization treatment is facing a clear and present danger and could be a casualty of some of the proposed anti-abortion laws that are emerging across the US, according to a key advocate of reproductive medicine.
The warning comes as US states, including Louisiana, have passed or are debating new proposed legislation that would give full rights to embryos, which in some cases means fertilized eggs, created in the process of IVF and not implanted in a woman, would have the same legal rights as children.
What were seeing is that in their fervor to curry the most favor with the forced birth movement, politicians are crafting some really sloppily worded legislation, said Sean Tipton, the chief advocacy and policy officer of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine. There is a fever to be as restrictive as you can.
Experts say that the passage of so-called personhood laws, which give rights to fertilized eggs, could dramatically curtail the availability and practice of IVF in some states, and could in effect make it illegal for IVF facilities to freeze or discard embryos created in the process.
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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/may/12/ivf-treatment-us-anti-abortion-laws-bills