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It’s been a little more than a week since the Alabama supreme court decided that frozen embryos are actual living people just like you and me, and entitled to the same constitutional rights (including probably the right to carry an AR-15). In that time, Republicans have been scrambling to agree vigorously with the Alabama court, but also not.
After all, it’s just a given for rightwingers that human life begins at conception, as the abortion banners have said for decades. But on the other hand, polls consistently show that overwhelming numbers of Americans believe that in vitro fertilization is just fine. That’s even reflected in polling allegedly done by alleged GOP pollster Kellyanne Conway:
According to Conway’s firm, 85% of all respondents and 86% of women support increasing access to fertility-related procedures and services for individuals facing challenges in conceiving, including 78% of people who consider themselves anti-abortion and 83% of evangelicals.
Oh, fine, leave it to us damn atheist Democrats to point out the logical inconsistency between “life begins at conception so every blastocyst is a person with a soul” —hence any deliberate destruction of same is murther — and “IVF is just fine,” although it’s virtually impossible for the procedure to be done without there being extra fertilized eggs left over and frozen for possible second or third tries. That’s why Alabama’s fertility clinics have put procedures on hold.
We’d say that fertilization = that’s a person is a completely invalid premise to start with, but we at least recognize its implications, for Crom’s sake.
But as we say, IVF — used in about two percent of all births today — is also a very popular procedure, even among Bible-believin’ “pro-life” Republican couples who want 1) a baby and 2) to see asylum seekers shot dead at the border because we have to have laws or we’re not even a country anymore.
Why yes, we are suggesting that maybe the hypocrisy goes a tad further than “forced birth for thee, a cache of frozen embryos for me.”
Now, while a few in the antiabortion crowd are delighted by the ruling and look forward to seeing IVF banned, most prominent Republicans are tying themselves (but not their fallopian tubes) into knots trying to run away from the Alabama court’s ruling.
See for instance Nikki Haley, whose second child was born via the science miracle of IVF. Haley initially said yes, absolutely, frozen embryos are babies so you can drive in the carpool lane while transporting them (fine, we’re embellishing), but then later insisted, “We don’t want fertility treatments to shut down,” but also said there was no contradiction between the two statements.
Saturday, Haley went even further on NBC’s “Today” show (Washington Post gift link), fully embracing a position that, if you didn’t know she meant IVF, would make you think she had become a fervent supporter of abortion rights or gender-affirming care for trans kids:
“Government doesn’t need to get into something this sensitive. […] This should be between the doctor and the parents. Period. […] We want government to allow the conversation to be between the doctor and the parents without government getting in the way on the decisions that are made about them and what happens with these embryos.”
Welcome to the struggle, Nikki! Isn’t women’s bodily autonomy a great thing, at least when the fertilized eggs are outside a woman’s body and her husband can be consulted?
Then there was Alabama’s own f’ball-coach/senator Tommy Tuberville, who gallantly insisted that IVF is great because “we need more babies,” but um … the Alabama supreme court, you say? Er. Well!
Friday, Donald Trump weighed in, calling on Alabama legislators to keep “protecting” all those real-person embryos except for the ones that are needed for IVF to work. Oh, wait, he didn’t frame it that way at all! On his Pretend Twitter, Trump blithely blew right past any contradiction between banning abortion because embryos are people, and allowing IVF because it’s popular, and creates the joy of babies, even if, um, some of those joyful babies remain frozen and will eventually be discarded.
“Under my leadership, the Republican Party will always support the creation of strong, thriving, healthy American families. We want to make it easier for mothers and fathers to have babies, not harder! That includes supporting the availability of fertility treatments like IVF in every State in America. Like the OVERWHELMING MAJORITY of Americans, including the VAST MAJORITY of Republicans, Conservatives, Christians, and Pro-Life Americans, I strongly support the availability of IVF for couples who are trying to have a precious baby. Today, I am calling on the Alabama Legislature to act quickly to find an immediate solution to preserve the availability of IVF in Alabama. The Republican Party should always be on the side of the Miracle of Life – and the side of Mothers, Fathers, and their Beautiful Babies. IVF is an important part of that, and our Great Republican Party will always be with you, in your quest, for the ULTIMATE JOY IN LIFE!
Contradiction? What contradiction? Only a dirty Democrat could be against the Miracle of Life, you monsters.
Hardline anti-abortion leaders struggled to reconcile their own enthusiastic support for the Alabama ruling with Trump’s seeming betrayal, so they made excuses for his apostasy. Heck, if they can overlook his serial marriages, his affair with a porn star, and a little light treason, handwaving away his willingness to support IVF was easy. Steve Aden, the chief legal counsel for “Americans United for Life,” told the Post Friday that
he wished Trump “would express a more thoughtful opinion that is based on an understanding of the IVF process and the need for respect for human life throughout it,” adding: “I wouldn’t say I’m at odds with the president’s decision; I guess I’m about halfway there. He needs to understand the issue more fundamentally.”
“The ethical approach to IVF is to ensure that human lives are not wantonly created and destroyed in the process,” he continued, saying that he shared Trump’s hope Alabama lawmakers would act on the issue but that the legislation should express “respect for life.”
No Sir, he said, tears welling up in his big manly Life-defending eyes, you weren’t mistaken, of course not, although if you could, Sir, we have a slideshow and some prayers we’d like to share with you.
As for Alabama, Republicans there are also trying to have their sacred baby-persons and freeze them for IVF too. A statement from the office of state Attorney General Steve Marshall (R-you were wondering?) said he “has no intention of using the recent Alabama Supreme Court decision as a basis for prosecuting IVF families or providers,” so let’s not get too panicky that the state Supremes have enshrined in law the full implication of “fetal personhood.”
Finally, as the Post notes, Republican state Sen. Tim Melson has vowed to file a bill clarifying that embryos are magically not real people until they are implanted in a lady’s uterus, so we guess that’s going to become the go-to rationalization that squares this particular bit of circular logic for the antiabortion crowd. Hell, find a Bible verse about seeds and clay pots and women bein’ vessels and they’ll be golden.
Or maybe Republicans will extend the IVF-doesn’t-count rationalization further with a revelation from Jesus that women can have abortions if they donate more than $10,000 to the state or national Republican Party, and have permission from their husband and a GOP precinct committee member.
Open Thread!
PREVIOUSLY ON THIS VERY TOPIC!
[Reuters / CNN / NBC News / WaPo (gift link)]
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