John Jefferson
Republicans vote against the right to IVF again
Donald Trump, I strongly suspect, would not be able to explain how in vitro fertilization (IVF) works if his life depended on it. Yet in recent months – and in what seems to be a disingenuous and desperate attempt to woo female voters – he has had a lot to say on the subject.
In February, for example, several clinics in Alabama temporarily paused IVF procedures after the state’s supreme court ruled that frozen embryos are “children”. (Because the IVF process typically involves making multiple embryos, disposing of surplus embryos would put medical professionals in legal jeopardy.) Following a massive backlash, Trump said he would “strongly support the availability of IVF” and called on Alabama lawmakers to preserve access to the procedure. Which they did: Alabama quickly passed a law protecting IVF providers from liability. At the same time, however, Republicans refused to consider proposals that would have addressed the legal status of embryos created in IVF labs, meaning the issue still isn’t fully settled.
In August, Trump went further in regards to IVF. Not only did he say he supports access to the treatment but, on multiple occasions, he claimed that he would make the government or insurance companies pay for IVF if he were elected again. Which is a very big, very expensive and very unsubstantiated promise.
Then, during his recent disastrous debate with Kamala Harris, Trump grandly proclaimed he had “been a leader on IVF, which is fertilization”. (It’s a shame the moderators didn’t put him on the spot and ask if he knew what the IV stood for.) He added: “When they got a very negative decision on IVF from the Alabama courts, I saw the people of Alabama and the legislature two days later voted it in. I’ve been a leader on it. They know that and everybody else knows it.”
I’m not sure “they” (whoever they may be) do know that. After all, if Trump were such a leader on “fertilization”, it follows that he would be rallying Republicans in support of it. Instead – a mere week after Trump’s comments on IVF at the debate – Senate Republicans blocked, for the second time, a Democratic bill that would have provided a nationwide right to the fertility treatment. While the Right to IVF Act would have increased affordability by expanding insurance coverage, it goes nowhere near as far as Trump’s supposed plans to have IVF entirely paid for. Still, only two Republicans (Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski) voted to advance the bill. Senator JD Vance wasn’t present for this vote but voted against the bill in June. Trump, the self-proclaimed “leader on IVF”, couldn’t even lead his own running mate to vote “yes”.
In short: it’s very clear that Trump has no plans to protect the right to IVF. A man of zero convictions, I doubt he has any strong feelings on the matter himself, but we all know that he does the bidding of whoever is most useful to him. And those people have always been ultraconservatives intent on systemically dismantling the rights of women and minorities. Evangelicals and hard-right ideologues have succeeded in overturning Roe v Wade and now, should there be another Trump term, they have their sights set on restricting access to IVF. Don’t believe a word Trump says when it comes to IVF – or anything else, for that matter. The man is not a leader on “fertilization”; he’s a leader on misinformation.
IVF treatment in Gaza has been decimated – along with 4,000 embryos
Given the fact that IVF is now a major Democratic talking point, it’s worth noting that the vast majority of Democrats have been very quiet about the Israeli missile strike on an IVF fertility clinic in Gaza last December, which destroyed 4,000 embryos and an untold number of families’ dreams. Democrats, who keep telling us reproductive rights are on the ballot, also seem unconcerned about the reproductive justice nightmare in Gaza. You can’t seriously claim to be standing for women’s reproductive rights when you’re bypassing Congress and undermining international and domestic law to ensure Israel can keep starving and annihilating women and children in Gaza.
Two Georgia mothers die after being unable to access legal abortions
The preventable deaths of Amber Nicole Thurman and Candi Miller, who couldn’t access legal abortions and timely medical care in their state, were first reported by ProPublica. The Guardian’s Moira Donegan notes that “[t]he story highlights the reality of abortion bans, which – even in states like Georgia, with putative exceptions for maternal health – in practice impose death sentences on women who seek to end their pregnancies, or who experience severe complications”.
Jeff Bezos’s fiancee wrote a children’s book called The Fly Who Flew to Space and is being sued by her yoga instructor because of it
Forget all the legal drama – what is it with rich people and celebrities being so convinced they can write good children’s books?
Mohamed Al Fayed accused in BBC documentary of raping five women
The former Harrods owner, who died last year, has also been accused of sexually abusing at least 15 other women when they worked at the luxury department store.
Campaigners tie baby slings to statues in call for better UK paternity leave
A fantastic campaign idea drawing attention to the fact that the UK has the worst paternity leave in Europe.
Pregnancy causes profound changes in the brain
We’ve known for a long time that pregnancy appears to trigger changes to the brain, but a new study has observed these changes in real time. So what does this mean? We’re still figuring that out. “There is so much about the neurobiology of pregnancy that we don’t understand yet,” one researcher explained. “[A]nd it’s not because women are too complicated, it’s not because pregnancy is some Gordian knot, it’s a byproduct of the fact that the biomedical sciences have historically ignored women’s health.”
Research shows picky eating in children down to genetics, not parenting
Yesterday, my toddler threw herself on the ground and screamed bloody murder when I had the audacity to ask her to eat some peas. So this new report comes as very welcome news.
The week in pawtriarchy
A cat called Marley who lives at a London safe house for women who have been enslaved, exploited and trafficked, has been named UK cat of the year. The Guardian’s Amelia Hill writes that Marley’s award will be presented by “the novelist, presenter and self-confessed cat lady Dawn O’Porter, who has said she learned so much about life and love from her cat that when it died, she had her freeze-dried”. One imagines JD Vance would have a thing or two to say about that.
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