Ms. Memo: This Week in Women's Rights

March 6, 2024

From the ongoing fight for abortion rights and access, to elections, to the drive for the Equal Rights Amendment, there are a multitude of battles to keep up with. In this weekly roundup, find the absolute need-to-know news for feminists.

Alabama IVF Ruling Imperils Contraception

Protesters march to denounce the U.S. Supreme Court decision to end federal abortion rights protections on June 26, 2022, in Los Angeles. (David McNew / Getty Images)

BY CARRIE N. BAKER | The recent Alabama Supreme Court ruling that frozen embryos created by in vitro fertilization (IVF) are children lays the groundwork for banning most forms of contraception. Citing Bible passages and referring to “God” 41 times, the decision put a halt to fertility treatments in Alabama—but it threatens to have a much broader impact on the ability of people to prevent pregnancy by using contraception.

“If a fertilized egg is a person, then you run into all sorts of risks in terms of birth control,” said Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), who had both of her children using IVF.

“They came for abortion first. Now it’s IVF and next it’ll be birth control,” said Hillary Clinton on social media.

The anti-abortion movement has for years argued—contrary to medical science—that emergency contraception functions by preventing implantation of a fertilized egg in the uterine wall. In fact, hormonal contraceptives block fertilization by preventing ovulation and thickening the cervical mucus so sperm cannot reach the egg. No forms of contraception, including IUDs, interrupt an established pregnancy, which occurs once the fertilized egg implants in the uterine wall.

The idea that fertilized eggs are people, combined with the misunderstanding of how contraception works, opens the door to outright bans on many of the most commonly-used and reliable forms of contraception, including hormonal birth control pills, rings, patches and injections as well as IUDs and emergency contraception.

“I am fearful that other anti-abortion judges and lawyers will be emboldened by this ruling and try to replicate those efforts,” said Candice Gibson, director of state policy at the Guttmacher Institute.

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What we're reading

Because it's hard to keep up with everything going on in the world right now. Here's what we're reading this week:

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