Democrats Put IVF and Abortion in the Spotlight at Biden’s State of the Union
You have a preview view of this article while we are checking your access. When we have confirmed access, the full article content will load. Democrats are contrasting their support for reproductive rights with Republicans’ records of opposing protections for abortion and fertility treatments. A lab staff member preparing petri dishes at the Aspire Houston […]
Tomas Kauer - News Moderator 
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Democrats are contrasting their support for reproductive rights with Republicans’ records of opposing protections for abortion and fertility treatments.
Among the hundreds of guests who will fill the House chamber on Thursday evening — each invited to telegraph distinct political messages — will be dozens of reproductive rights advocates and providers invited by Democrats who are looking to put access to abortion and fertility treatments front and center this election year.
Twenty-eight Democrats in the House and at least seven in the Senate chose their guests for their reproductive health experiences or advocacy background. They include the first person born in the United States via in vitro fertilization, women who relied on I.V.F. to get pregnant, abortion providers and women who were denied abortions by state bans after learning of fatal fetal anomalies or developing conditions that threatened their health and fertility.
It is all part of an effort by Democrats to highlight their support for reproductive rights, while seizing on the stringent restrictions imposed by Republican-led states since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. It is also a way for them to spotlight how Republicans — many of whom have backed abortion bans and the notion of fetal personhood — have endorsed policies that could put access to abortion and fertility treatments at risk.
“It’s the fight of our lives. We have Republicans — they want to either force women to stay pregnant, or prevent women from getting pregnant,” said Representative Lois Frankel of Florida, who invited Dr. Cherise Felix, an OB-GYN who fled Tennessee’s abortion ban to practice at a Planned Parenthood in West Palm Beach. “The threat of Donald Trump is real. It’s because of him that Roe v. Wade has been overturned, and we know that Joe Biden will be a warrior for us.”
After the Alabama Supreme Court ruled last month that frozen embryos should be considered children, a decision that imperiled access to I.V.F. in the state, Senator Tim Kaine, Democrat of Virginia, invited Elizabeth Carr — the first American conceived in a lab. Ms. Carr was born in 1981 in Norfolk, Virginia. (Alabama lawmakers passed a law on Wednesday to protect I.V.F. providers from criminal and civil liability.)
“It’s more important than ever that we commit to protecting access to I.V.F. services nationwide,” Mr. Kaine said in a statement.
