- Republican Rep. Byron Donald on Sunday acknowledged the need for in vitro fertilization for families across the country.
- “It’s helping us raise wonderful families,” the congressman told NBC News about IVF.
- Some Republicans are distancing themselves from conservatives on this issue.
The Alabama Supreme Court ruled last week that frozen embryos have the same rights as a born, living child, citing a Biblical opinion.
Since then, Republican lawmakers across the country have scrambled to clarify their views on in vitro fertilization, a fertility treatment in which a woman fertilizes multiple eggs outside her womb to increase her chances of a successful pregnancy. .
On Sunday, Florida Rep. Byron Donald appeared on NBC’s “Meet the Press” and said that IVF, which helps people “build great families, is something our country desperately needs.” He said he fully supports it.
“The IVF procedure is very important to many couples in our country,” Donald said. “It helps them raise great families. Our country needs that.”
Despite support for IVF from conservative lawmakers like Donald, 125 of his fellow House Republicans co-sponsored a bill that would establish that there are no exceptions to the process and that life begins at conception. did. This expensive and time-consuming procedure may involve discarding some fertilized eggs.
Mr. Donald, who is not among the 125 House members pushing the bill, told MSNBC, “I want to see the devil in the details.”
But the congresswoman’s comments reveal the broad scope of Republican reproductive theory, from “adoption is an option” on abortion to a desire to “create great families” through in vitro fertilization. .
“As President Trump has said, we really want the Alabama Legislature to make sure that the process is protected for families who are struggling to have children,” Donald said. said in an interview.
Last week, former President Donald Trump spoke on his Truth Social platform about the need for IVF availability.
“We want to make it easier for mothers and fathers to have babies, not harder,” the former president wrote. “This includes supporting the availability of infertility treatments such as in vitro fertilization in every state in the United States.”
Issues surrounding abortion and family planning became even more dangerous after the conservative-leaning Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, with states playing the most important role in governing reproductive rights.
Republicans have generally struggled to counter Democratic messages on abortion rights, with the issue playing a major role in numerous races across the country since the 2022 midterm elections, when Democrats It performed better than expected, with the Republican Party’s prediction that it would be a “red flag.” Wave” election.
Even in conservative states like Kentucky, moderate Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear criticized his Republican opponents last year over their past support for strict abortion bans with exceptions for cases involving rape and incest. , ran an effective campaign on this issue.
Beshear was re-elected to a second term by a 5-point margin in a state that Trump won by 26 points in 2020.
