Christina Bohannan urges stronger protections for IVF after Alabama Supreme Court ruling

Years ago, Christina Bohannan, a Democrat vying for Iowa’s 1st Congressional District, wanted a second child and was unable to get pregnant on her own. Some time after the birth of her now-21-year-old daughter, she turned to University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics for in vitro fertilization.

“Physically, emotionally, financially it can be a difficult process,” Bohannan said. “ … For me it wasn’t successful, but I was grateful to have a chance — an opportunity to try.”

After an Alabama Supreme Court ruling last month determined that frozen embryos are children under state law, Bohannan is among politicians nationwide urging stronger protections for IVF. Alabama’s high court ruled that people who destroy the frozen embryos can be sued for wrongful death of a minor child, casting uncertainty among providers over the legality of storing embryos or inadvertently causing damage.

As the general election looms in November, Democrats have seized on the ruling to sound the alarm that IVF protections could be threatened as well other rights after the U.S. Supreme Court in 2022 overturned Roe v. Wade and ended the federal right to an abortion.

This is challenging Republicans to strike a balance on reproductive rights issues, with IVF largely receiving bipartisan support while they broadly try to appeal to a base that opposes abortion.

Based on Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Data, 97,128 children were born in 2021 as a result of assisted reproductive technology such as IVF. The treatment helps individuals who cannot conceive on their own have a child by combining an egg with sperm outside the body.

Some IVF centers in Alabama have shuttered or paused treatments after the ruling out of concern for legal penalties in discarding unused embryos. In response to the backlash, Alabama lawmakers moved Thursday to give civil and criminal immunity to IVF service providers.

“It is a miracle for many, many families,” said Bohannan, who’s looking to unseat Republican Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks in November, in a press call Thursday. “Anybody who would deny that hope — who would deny the chance at a family — should not say that they represent families in the state Legislature or in Congress.”

Miller-Meeks: ‘I support IVF’

Iowa GOP lawmakers have advanced bills that critics fear would enshrine the concept of “personhood” — the belief that life starts at fertilization — into state law.

One bill, House File 2518, would allow a civil wrong death action for the “wrongful death” of an embryo or fetus at any point in pregnancy.

House Study Bill 621 gives embryos and fetuses personhood from the moment of fertilization. It also makes the nonconsensual causing of death or serious injury to an unborn “person” a class A felony.

Bohannan criticized Miller-Meeks for co-sponsoring a bill called the Life at Conception Act that states life begins at conception. She said it was disingenuous for Miller-Meeks to say she supports IVF while supporting this legislation, which Bohannan argued would make IVF impossible.

The bill does not include an exception for IVF, but it states that it should not “be construed to authorize the prosecution of any woman for the death of her unborn child.” A Senate version of the bill last introduced in 2021 does make an exception.

“You can't sign on to a bill that has this severe, devastating consequence for families and then try to backtrack later and say, ‘Oh, I didn't mean that. Now I'm going to try to change what I'm saying,’ simply because you think that you're now in some political hot water over it,” Bohannan said. “That is not fair to Iowa families. It's not fair to their dream of being parents.”

In a statement, Miller-Meeks responded: “As a physician and mother, I support IVF. It is a beautiful pro-life act by families who want to bring children into the world. I also believe it should be covered by insurance. What I find extreme and disingenuous is Ms. Bohannan’s and the Democrats’ belief that abortion should be available up until the time of birth.” She did not specify whether she supports allowing parents and providers to discard unused embryos.

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IVF researcher: Embryos are ‘not a baby’

Amy Sparks, representing the network of embryologist and infertility care providers across the U.S. as former president of the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology, said on Bohannan’s call that the law needs to recognize biological differences between a baby and a fertilized egg. Sparks also is director of IVF and Reproductive Testing Laboratories at the UI, but was not representing the university in her remarks.

“Embryos represent a stage in the continuum of human development,” Sparks said. “But they're not a baby, nor do they possess the attributes of personhood.”

This ruling “will lead to fewer people having the children and grandchildren they so desperately want,” Sparks said. While 1 in 6 adults suffer from some form of infertility, according to the World Health Organization, she said these services are needed.

Sparks favored a bill introduced by Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., called the Access to Family Building Act, which would establish a statutory right to access IVF protections for infertile patients and legally shield health care providers administering treatment. It also would establish a person’s statutory right regarding the use or disposition of their reproductive genetic materials. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, R-Miss., blocked the legislation, which Duckworth looked to pass by unanimous consent.

Bohannan said infertility is a bipartisan issue and that Duckworth’s bill would have provided clear support for IVF.

“That somehow a few cells — literally we are talking about something that's a few cells — is the same as a full child, the same (as a) human being, that is just not a view shared by the overwhelming majority of Americans or Iowans,” Bohannan said.

As Sparks was pipetting a 0.1 millimeter egg Thursday morning — or checking it for fertilization — she said she reflected on the need for these protections from persecution for potentially damaging or losing an embryo in the course of health care professionals’ duties.

“There's always a chance it's going to get stuck on the pipette or perhaps I'm going to crack the shell — there is a soft shell around the egg,” Sparks said. “Am I going to go to jail for that? I mean, that’s a heavy question, because I'm trying to do the best for our patients, but if I'm going to be liable to that level, I don't know how many of us would be able to continue to do this work.”

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