Friends, I’ve just stepped off the House floor after delivering a speech that asked my Republican House colleagues to prove to the American people that they’re not hypocrites.
Why? Let’s discuss.
184 of my GOP colleagues have cosponsored legislation that supports “fetal personhood” – aka giving embryos the same full legal rights as a person.
This is fringe ideology, and it’s incredibly dangerous. Not only could it be used to prosecute people for miscarriages or for having an abortion, it could potentially affect access to birth control – and it could definitely threaten access to IVF.
During IVF, doctors often create more fertilized embryos than they plan on using, because some may be genetically unviable or result in miscarriages.
I know this, because three years ago, during my first year in Congress, I froze my eggs – which means I went through the initial stages of IVF, except that after egg retrieval, my eggs were frozen and stored.
For weeks, I took hormone pills, gave myself injections, and went to the doctor for check-ups. Then, I had a procedure under twilight sedation to harvest my eggs.
I have 17 mature eggs frozen now. Patients like me pay for the storage of their eggs and embryos – and eventually, some embryos are usually donated for medical research or destroyed.
But fetal personhood legislation – and state court rulings like the one in Alabama – could force patients to pay for storage of their embryos forever or leave clinics liable to criminal charges if embryos are damaged. That’s why at least one IVF clinic in Alabama is ending the service – and this is just the beginning.
News flash for my Republican colleagues who claim they don’t want to do away with IVF: You can’t simultaneously support “fetal personhood” and support IVF access.
You can’t falsely claim to be “pro-life” and then rip away people’s dreams of having children.
And you can’t try to bury your true end goal – attacking reproductive care and controlling our bodies and lives.
So today I called on all 184 House Republicans – including Speaker Johnson – who have cosponsored legislation that would treat embryos as children and threaten access to IVF to come to the House Floor and publicly remove their names from these bills.
Republicans, how about it? Prove that you really do support IVF access. Prove that you support families. Prove that you’re not a hypocrite.
I’m guessing they won’t take me up on it.
So while we wait for the GOP to grow a spine (which could take…forever), we’ve got to focus our energy on another path: Flipping the House and regaining our Democratic majority!
I’m doing every single thing I can to get it done – starting with delivering a resounding defeat to my anti-abortion MAGA opponent. Will you join me?
