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Democrats have invited these women and several others as guests to President Biden’s State of the Union address on Thursday, bringing the United States, which has often unwittingly become embroiled in the politics of reproductive health restrictions, in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling. Introduced people’s lives.overturn Roe vs. Wade Almost 2 years ago.
The party is trying to put access to reproductive health care – an issue where Democrats have largely had success at the ballot box – front and center in an election year. And the appearance comes in the wake of a state court ruling that expanded the fight to protect access to fertility treatment.
The White House announced in January that Kate Cox, a mother of two from Texas, would be a guest at First Lady Jill Biden’s speech. She sought an abortion after learning that her fetus had a fatal genetic disorder that could jeopardize her full-term delivery if the pregnancy continued. her health and future fertility. She petitioned a judge in Texas for an abortion, and after a week of legal whiplash, she eventually left the state to get an abortion.
Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), the Senate president pro tempore, said Kayla Murray, who traveled from Idaho to Washington state in 2022 to undergo an abortion after learning her unborn child had a fatal abnormality, said: He announced that he would bring Mr. Smith with him. Smith said in her statement that she was “forced to seek help” out of state to terminate the pregnancy under Idaho’s restrictive abortion laws. And House Minority Whip Katherine Clark (D-Mass.) invited Amanda Zulawski to give her speech. Zulawski, from Texas, was denied an abortion even though her fetus had no chance of survival, and was only allowed to give birth after she developed sepsis and was left with permanent physical damage.
Rep. Judy Chu (D-Calif.) invited Caitlin Bernard, a doctor who performed an abortion on a 10-year-old girl in 2022 and was thrust into the center of a political conflict over abortion rights. The child rape victim was forced to travel from Ohio to Indiana for surgery. And Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.) invited Tammy Klomenaker, director of Red River Women’s Clinic, which has been North Dakota’s only abortion provider for more than 20 years. Before moving operations to Minnesota, the clinic sought to avoid a ban that would overturn the law. egg Triggered in home state.
Democrats also focused attention on access to fertility treatment after the Alabama Supreme Court ruled last month that frozen embryos are human beings and individuals can be held responsible for destroying them. There is.
Alabama’s decision has left IVF treatment at a standstill, with nearly all clinics in the state suspending IVF and embryo processing, and some women leaving to continue treatment. Since this decision, the Alabama Legislature has passed legislation that protects IVF providers and patients from criminal or civil liability if embryos created are damaged or destroyed.
Several Republican lawmakers have voiced support for IVF in the wake of the Alabama ruling, but others have not considered the issue of fetal personhood at the heart of the case. And some Democrats are concerned that other states will follow suit with this unprecedented decision. Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), whose guest Thursday was Illinois reproductive endocrinologist and infertility expert Amanda Adelai, called for passage of an IVF protection bill before and after the Alabama decision. . Last week, Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Mississippi) blocked one of those efforts from moving forward by unanimous consent.
Elizabeth Kerr, who in 1981 became America’s first baby born through in vitro fertilization, will be a guest of Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Virginia). Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer of New York will bring on one of his guests, Kate Farley, a Westchester woman who is pregnant as a result of in vitro fertilization. Sen. Cory Booker (D.N.J.) invited Jersey City native Roshni Kamta, who was diagnosed with breast cancer at age 22 and froze her eggs. Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) also invited obstetrician-gynecologist Olivia Manayan. She is a senior resident at the University of Hawaii.
The House will also welcome several reproductive rights advocates Thursday night.
Mini Timaraju, president of Reproductive Freedom for All (a nonprofit organization formerly known as NARAL), will be a guest of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (New York). Congressman Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) invited Barbara Collula, CEO of Resolve, the national infertility association. and Jodi Hicks, CEO of Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California. join as a guest Remarks from Congressman Pete Aguilar (Democrat, California), Chairman of the House Democratic Caucus.
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