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My husband Sean and I met in college and were married in 2015. As soon as he proposed, I carefully laid out a plan: we would marry, two years later, we’d have our first baby, and two years after that, we’d have our second baby, completing our family by 2019.
But the universe had different ideas. Sean was diagnosed with male factor infertility in 2018, meaning we had less than a 1% chance of conceiving naturally. Sean has a medical condition that affects his sperm motility; his sperm have trouble moving in the right direction, making it next to impossible for them to reach the eggs I ovulate each month.
If one of us had cancer, we would access medicine to treat it. So, similarly, we accessed medicine to build our family via IVF. Max and Annie, twins, came along in 2019, and we’re expecting our third baby, also through IVF, in August. Because of IVF, I’m a mom.
After giving birth to Max and Annie, I left my job as a venture capital investor to dedicate my career to innovating in the fertility and women’s health industries. Specifically, I was excited to educate, empower, and help increase access to the amazing science that is assisted reproductive technology, or ART.
Ten percent of Danish babies born every year are IVF babies, thanks to easy access to treatments in Denmark. Today, 2% of American babies born every year are IVF babies, but some 18% of couples struggle with infertility. So it’s clear that we have an access problem. But I’m hopeful we’re moving in the right direction, given that as of today, 21 states and the District of Columbia have mandated some degree of insurance coverage for fertility treatments for couples struggling to conceive.
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I was hopeful, that is, until the Alabama Supreme Court ruled last week that frozen embryos can be considered “extrauterine children,” a ruling that forced three fertility clinics in the state to temporarily close, fearing legal jeopardy. Although a bipartisan effort is underway in the Alabama House and Senate to draft “clarifying” legislation to protect IVF, this ruling was a frightening reminder of the rights – human rights, not women’s rights – and access we need to protect.
This ruling should not have been shocking because it was nothing but a continuation of the Dobbs decision that reversed Roe v. Wade. It forced narrow religious beliefs on a country that was founded on the separation of church and state (the Alabama ruling mentions “God” forty-one times). The Alabama Supreme Court decision also thumbs its nose at science and, like Dobbs, aims to deny women the right to control their own bodies.
Ironically, the Alabama ruling came as we’re seeing massive advances in fertility and women’s health, like an at-home scale that can detect preeclampsia, one of the biggest contributors to maternal mortality in the U.S., to a blood test that can diagnose endometriosis (affecting 1 in 10 American women), to a tampon capable of detecting HPV, the leading cause of cervical cancer.
We can naively isolate the danger of a ruling like this to conservative states like Alabama, or we can take action. Here are some things you can do right now to save access to reproductive healthcare in America:
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Demand that your elected officials cosponsor and pass the Access to Family Building Act (S.3612/H.R.7056), which would protect IVF across the country. Contact your legislators about the bill, introduced by Senators Duckworth (D-IL) and Murray (D-WA) and Congresswoman Wild (D-PA-7), here.
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Share your personal story via RESOLVE, a non-profit that offers advocacy programs for people suffering from infertility. Your story can truly have an impact on legislation. When 1 in 6 people have infertility in America, the volume of our stories matters.
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Study this map, look at your state, and click “Act Now!” if there is pending legislation in your state that might harm couples’ abilities to build their families through IVF and generally access reproductive healthcare.
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Educate yourself and your community. RESOLVE provides a litany of resources ranging from sample social media posts to templates for op-eds or letters to the editor.
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Donate and participate in RESOLVE’S Federal Advocacy Day on May 14th.
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Lastly, and most importantly, vote for legislators fighting for reproductive healthcare access. Planned Parenthood’s Congressional Scorecard is a great resource to understand if incumbents support reproductive healthcare access.
I look at my kids and feel my heart overflowing with gratitude. I realize how much we need to advocate for our reproductive rights so more families get to feel this same kind of love, a love I might not ever have gotten to experience without the science of IVF.
Abby Mercado, Co-Founder & CEO of Rescripted