IVF becomes a topic on the campaign trail

Posted by: Barbara Collura at January 30, 2012
Category: Infertility Advocacy

Barbara Collura

Today, we’ve reached a new high in infertility awareness. Did you see it? Perhaps you heard it yourself or read about it in today’s paper. Ladies and gentlemen…mark this date on your calendar: Presidential candidates are talking about in vitro fertilization! One of them actually addressed IVF on the campaign trail. Hallelujah! We can close our doors, take down the website, and put this cruel disease behind us. Awareness has reached people who may hold the highest office in this land. What more could we ask for?

Excuse me? What is that you are saying? I need to read the quote more carefully? You mean this isn’t a wonderful public awareness statement about the life affirming medical treatments for the millions who suffer from infertility? You mean this isn’t about how everyone will get access to care who needs it? You mean this isn’t about doctors treating patients with the standard of care we deserve? Let me take a moment to read the quote fully…please, read it with me.

Well, pop the balloons and stop eating the cake – the party is over. This is NOT about improving the lives of people living with infertility, not about expanding coverage and care, and not about the needs of infertility patients. This is about our government interfering with your care and deciding what happens to your embryos.

Since 2008 RESOLVE has been loud and clear that Personhood laws will impede access to care for infertility patients. RESOLVE opposes Personhood and states so in our policy. This candidate is calling for “a commission to study the ethics of in vitro fertilization,” and that goes beyond even what the Personhood movement is pushing. This candidate’s statement is about ultimately banning the practice of IVF. “Forming a commission” is often government talk for “put something together that looks objective but really will reach the conclusion we want in the end.”

Please, for all of the millions with infertility, and those who will be diagnosed today, tomorrow, next month, and next year, stay informed. Educate yourself. And get involved. We cannot let our government rule how we treat our disease.

Actions YOU Can Take

Find out what’s going on in your state.
Become a grassroots advocate
Comment on the Washington Post Article – or find and comment on the coverage of this topic from your preferred news source.
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Read RESOLVE’s Personhood Policy
Support RESOLVE's Advocacy Efforts

Barbara Collura is the Executive Director for RESOLVE: The National Infertility Association. She can be reached at bcollura@resolve.org or 703.556.7172.

Comments

Submitted by Gleen at 05:30 AM on June 27, 2012

great post on IVF

Submitted by IVF Treatment at 05:28 AM on June 27, 2012

IVF treatments are getting popularity day by day as in the starting people were not aware about IVF treatments but now sterile couple are showing interest in in-vitro fertilization. It offers more chances for getting pregnant with the help of clinical treatments. http://www.ivftreatments.org/

Submitted by Anna Jackson at 02:52 AM on May 25, 2012

Thanks for giving information on IVF treatments. I also personally feel that every woman should be aware about IVF treatments. There are lots of ladies are suffering form infertility problems and can not conceive naturally. Making IVF treatment campaign is really great idea for making the suffering women aware and knowledgeable about IVF treatments. http://www.ivftreatments.org/

Submitted by Craig R. Sweet, M.D. at 08:44 PM on February 8, 2012

The reality is that we don't know exactly what Speaker Gingrich had in mind when he suggested that a commission be formed to study the ethics of in vitro fertilization. He also suggested that all human embryonic stem cell research be banned which is a significant expansion of the current limitations on federal funding. We can go beyond the argument that he stated openly in 2001 that he supported federally funded research, as everyone is entitled to change his or her mind. I'm also sure this had nothing to do with the fact that he was in a Baptist church when he made his comments courting the religious right to support him. We are already the most regulated field of medicine. Nowhere in medicine does one have to report our success and failure rates to a national database. I am accountable to six governmental regulatory agencies, four membership regulatory societies, three ethics committees to say nothing of the ongoing threat of the legal system to sue or the medial to capitalize on a story should any human unintentional error occur. Bringing Speaker Gingrich into the world of ethics is laudable coming from a person who was censored for ethics violations by the very body he led. Let's be honest here, this has nothing to do with ethics and everything to do with politics. Letting the government into the world or reproductive medicine beyond its current intrusion will not serve the general public but is an attempt to win votes and gain power. While I normally try to stay out of the fray during election years, I have to come out firmly against the Speakers comments. As a member of three different ethics committees, I can utterly guarantee you that physicians, nurses and clergy working together on an ethics committee, for the sake of the patient, will do a far better job guiding the world of reproductive ethics than any politician ever could. I think we are all well aware that politics, ethics and power don't mix terribly well and it is naive to think that this proposed commission would be any different.

Submitted by lmw851 at 03:32 PM on February 8, 2012

I do not agree with Newt's statements or views but I also do not believe that your assessment of his statements are accurate. You have taken his statements and turned them into a religious notion (knowing that Newt is MOST LIKELY against IVF because of his conversion to Catholicism). However, what he said did not indicate that he was advocating for IVF to be outlawed or for patients to no longer make their own decisions. I hate that politics is always all or nothing, right or wrong, no compromise. There is a middle ground and most of the time the middle ground is the right place to be! People have the right to believe that life is created when an embryo is created they also have the right to decide what that means to them and how it will sway them politically. I am discouraged by the extreme "left-wing" voice of this article. Republicans have problems with infertility too and deserve to have opinions about stem cell research and IVF treatments.