Listen to Dr. Phil Chenette on protecting access to IVF: Podcast Interview
IVF,Life at conception,Reproductive health
"Three Alabama clinics pause IVF after court rules embryos are children"
What happens when IVF is banned? How does it impact couples hoping to have a family? What is 'Life At Conception'? The impact on doctors and experts working a fertility clinic? What can couples do to protect their freedom to use IVF?
Listen to my podcast interview with Dr. Philip Chenette. He has been a fertility doctor for over 30 years and explains reproductive health, the importance of IVF and the ramifications of political interference.
Podcast preview
"Patients often don't connect the dots. So, having a doctor explain, these are the complications, this is what's happening, this is why I cannot treat IVF for you because regulations and politicians are interfering with the process. As a physician, there's only so much I can do. But if you, as an individual, as a mother, and as a father, want to bring about change, you have to get involved and vote. So, that's where the connection happens."
Dr. Chenette explains, "In the early days, it was just people who were trying, and trying, and trying at home and just couldn't get it done, couldn't accomplish the goal of conceiving a pregnancy. I was impressed by the drive that they showed. These were new techniques. Our office was brand new at the time. The ideas of using fertility techniques, of using fertility medications, and laboratory techniques to manage human embryos were all brand new at the time. But people were so driven, patients were so driven to accomplish this goal of building a family that they were willing to engage in those new techniques, and try new ideas, and push, and push, and push until they could get it done."
"As you get older, it gets harder and harder to find that good embryo. Just to illustrate that, in our data, at age 25, 1 in three of your embryos is a healthy one, a third. At age 40, that number is one in 10. At age 44, that number is one in 100. 1% of the embryos you can produce have the chromosomes it takes to produce a baby at age 44. That problem is really what we dealt with and what created the fertility world we know today, in vitro fertilization, and the busy practices that we have taking care of patients." - Empowered Patient
Download the podcast transcript
Who criminalized IVF?
'Life at conception' bill
125 House Republicans including Speaker Mike Johnson back a ‘life at conception’ bill without any IVF exception. The Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos are "unborn children." This Congress, 125 House Republicans — including Speaker Mike Johnson — have cosponsored the "Life at Conception Act," which states that the term "human being" includes "all stages of life, including the moment of fertilization, cloning, or other moment at which an individual member of the human species comes into being."
The bill does not include any exception for in vitro fertilization (IVF), a reproductive treatment that allows mothers to fertilize several eggs outside the womb in order to increase the chances of a viable pregnancy." - Business Insider
Bill would also ban all abortions nationwide
The Alabama ruling gives fertilized eggs legal protection and—wouldn’t you know it—more than 100 sitting members of Congress want to do the same thing nationwide with a fetal personhood bill. In January 2023, House Republicans introduced H.R. 431, the Life at Conception Act, and the bill text says it would “implement equal protection for the right to life of each born and preborn human person,” defining “person” as “each and every member of the species homo sapiens at all stages of life, including the moment of fertilization.” There’s no carveout for IVF and the bill would also ban all abortions nationwide." - Jezebel
TakeAway: Elections have consequences. IVF gets criminalized. Vote for President Biden and Democrats.
Deepak
DemLabs
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