This is the worst “I told you so” ever. In the committee hearing for Washington State’s Uniform Parentage Act (UPA) which will legalize commercial surrogacy, award parental rights to any adult(s) who can acquire a child through reproductive technologies, and make parenthood gender neutral, the bill’s sponsor stated what traditional marriage supporters have known all along: “redefining marriage redefines parenthood.” Around minute 54 Senator Pedersen says, Then 6-7 years ago now, we anticipated a lot of what’s in UPA 2017 and made most of our act gender neutral. We were the first of a number of
My name is Jessica Kern. I am a product of a traditional surrogacy. This is where a surrogate is hired to both donate her egg and carry the child to term… As a product of surrogacy I can tell you firsthand what we children of donor conception go through. Children of surrogacy, just like children of a traditional adoption, deal with all the traumas that go along with adoption. We want to know where we come from. We want to know who our biological mothers are. We want to know who gave birth to us and what they are like. We are curious about their family and other siblings we may have. I spent th
My name is Brian and I am the son of a traditional surrogate, a biological father, and an adoptive mother. I think all of you here need to know how I feel about surrogacy. I have read a certain popular surrogacy board since I was 16 and I am almost 18 now. I was going to wait until I was 18 to open my mouth but I just can’t stand reading all of this stuff anymore. It was something in one TS’s post that really set me off. And it was not just her, it’s everybody attitude. “if you go into this feeling that this is “your” baby then you should not be a TS. This baby is NOT yours. It is your egg don
The appropriate, pro-life response to the Alabama ruling is not to gut Louisiana’s IVF laws. Rather, it is to recognize that ultimately, it is up to the industry to avoid another “Alabama situation” by maintaining standards that would have prevented the events that led to the Court case in the first place, and to reinforce those standards through legislative action that establishes, maintains, and reinforces accountability. Sen. Pressly’s bill does the opposite. The post What Louisiana Pro-Life Leaders Get Wrong About “Protecting IVF” first appeared on Them Before Us .
(Originally published in The Washington Stand) A seemingly innocuous in vitro fertilization approach that has been embraced by conservative lawmakers in multiple states is to propose bills that clarify that the “right” to IVF is protected in state law. Unlike more sweeping bills, like the one in Nevada that explicitly states that IVF embryos will never be recognized as persons or unborn children under state law, bills proposed in Georgia and Tennessee are brief and do not contain explicitly anti-life language. However, simply labeling IVF as a “right” carries implications that these legislator
(Originally published in Live Action News) I recently had a conversation with a fellow Christian about Trump’s Executive Order to reduce barriers to accessing in vitro fertilization (IVF) procedures. This discussion revealed to me that many people, even in Christian churches, seem confused about the ethical dilemmas surrounding IVF. This is unsurprising, as some politicians who oppose abortion have also championed IVF, blurring the line between ethical and unethical reproductive procedures. Should “safeguarding” IVF really be the goal? The White House recently tweeted that Trump’s EO will “saf
(Originally published in World News Group) One-man-one-woman marriage, pro-life convictions, the importance of mothers and fathers, and sex within marriage are mainstays of social conservatism, and for good reason. If we can’t conserve the iron triad of man, woman, and child, we won’t be able to conserve anything else. To that end, conservative brands and personalities have built massive followings by decrying single motherhood, same-sex marriage, and broken families. Except when their friends do it. At least that’s how it appears. The starkest example of conservative hypocrisy followed Dave R
IVF has made a business of violating the rights of children. It circumvents, rather than heals, infertility. Infertility is heartbreaking for married couples who desperately want to welcome a baby into their family. These couples deserve compassion, but never at the cost of children’s right to life and right to their mother and father. President Trump’s executive order aims to make IVF more affordable and accessible. But IVF, as it is currently practiced, rampantly victimizes children. Only around 2.3% of lab-created babies will be born alive. The vast majority will be genetically screened, se
(Originally published in The Federalist) The “Assisted Reproduction and Surrogacy Parentage Act,” which decriminalizes surrogate motherhood in the state of Michigan, is planned to take effect in March of this year. Michigan is the last state to decriminalize paid surrogacy, and some may say it’s about time they “catch up” to the rest of the country. One surrogacy agency recently posted that “choosing to carry a child for another family is one of the most profound gifts of love and compassion.” On the surface, surrogacy would appear this way, as what could possibly be wrong with helping couples
(Originally published in The Federalist) In December, gay father Balázs Boross published “Queering babies: (Auto)ethnographic reflections from a gay parent through surrogacy” in the journal Psychoanalysis, Culture, and Society. The essay “explores how encounters with [a surrogate baby] disrupt or confirm normative expectations about the ‘babyness’ of babies, the ‘parentness’ of parents.” Boross suggests “surrogate babies are queer creatures by default,” “given their prenatal history,” and “that queerness can serve as a window into the queerness of all babies.” Evolutionary biologist and Manhat
Marty and Melinda Rangers commissioned a surrogate pregnancy that ended in a twenty-week abortion after they alleged the surrogate violated contract terms by drinking alcohol, which they believed endangered the baby. The couple spent $300,000 on three commissioned children, with the first child aborted due to concerns over potential disabilities, highlighting issues of commodification and ableism within the fertility industry.
