Last month, a few hours after the Supreme Court of the United States reversed its 1973 ruling that had granted American women the right to terminate a pregnancy, about 70 Polk County residents gathered on the lawn of the county courthouse. Which is a pretty impressive turnout for 4 p.m. on a workday with no advertising or advance notice. They were there to object to the decision and to share some stories about what losing the right to abortion could mean.
My guest is someone with a very personal perspective on the ramifications of letting states decide whether woman should be able to choose to end an pregnancy. Like more than 70,000 other American women each year, Kelly Hanlon turned to in vitro fertilization (IVF) to have a child because she wasn’t able to have them without the assistance of modern medical science.
Science isn’t perfect, though, and IVF usually involves the fertilization of several eggs; for every embryo that is successfully implanted, others have to be discarded. And because it involves the inevitable destruction of embryos, even if they are only hours old, IVF could soon be illegal in many states. I talked with Kelly about that scenario at her home a few days ago.
Further reading:
The Dobbs ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade:
https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/21pdf/19-1392_6j37.pdf
Numbers of women using IVF:
https://www.sart.org/news-and-publications/news-and-research/press-releases-and-bulletins/more-than-73-thousand-babies-born-from-assisted-reproductive-technology-cycles-done-in-2020/
What overturning Roe v. Wade could mean for IVF:
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMe2208288
Access to abortion data:
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-01775-z
