Republicans hate/disrespect women 24/7.

Hey, at least she’s upfront about her hypocrisy.

This is what taking Alabama’s asinine ruling on embryos to its natural conclusion looks like

The depravity of the Israeli thugs 👇🏻

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) signed a law on Monday that adds crucial protections for LGBTQ+ couples using fertility treatments to build a family.

The Michigan Family Protection Act includes a series of provisions to protect families of all kinds. Most notably for the LGBTQ+ community, it changes “outdated state law to treat LGBTQ+ families equally and eliminate the need for them to go through a costly and invasive process to get documentation confirming their parental status,” as a press release from the governor’s office explains, adding that “Even if they move to a state that does not respect these basic rights, these bills help ensure they cannot be denied their relationship to their child.”

The law also repeals a law that made Michigan the only state in the country to criminalize surrogacy contracts; increases protections for surrogates, parents, and children; ensures equal legal treatment of children born through surrogacy and assisted reproduction; and streamlines the process for families to establish legal connections to their children.

“The Michigan Family Protection Act takes commonsense, long-overdue action to repeal Michigan’s ban on surrogacy, protect families formed by IVF, and ensure LGBTQ+ parents are treated equally,” Gov. Whitmer said in a statement. “Your family’s decisions should be up to you, and my legislative partners and I will keep fighting like hell to protect reproductive freedom in Michigan and make our state the best place to start, raise, and grow your family.”

Stephanie Jones, founder of the Michigan Fertility Alliance, called the legislation “an incredible victory for all Michigan families formed through assisted reproduction, including IVF and surrogacy, and for LGBTQ+ families.”

The press release also acknowledged the attacks on reproductive rights taking place across the country, most notably the 2022 overturning of Roe v. Wade and the 2024 Alabama Supreme Court’s declaration that embryos created through IVF have the same legal rights as children.

“As other states seek to restrict IVF, ban abortion, and make it harder to start a family, Michigan is supporting women and protecting reproductive freedoms for everyone,” the release stated.

One fierce advocate, Tammy Myers, has been fighting for the decriminalization of surrogacy in the state for the past four years. She told 7 Action News, “The tipping point, I think, is seeing that rights are being taken across the nation and we all need to fight for reproductive freedom.”

Polly Crozier, director of family advocacy at GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAD), added in a statement, “Michigan has shown us what strengthening families should look like in 2024: making it more possible for people to fulfill their dreams of building a family and more accessible for all families, including LGBTQ+ families, to obtain the safety and stability that comes with legal parentage.”

“Amid efforts to restrict Americans’ reproductive freedom and roll back protections for LGBTQ+ people and their families, the Michigan Family Protection Act is an inspiring example for other states where gaps in parentage laws leave families vulnerable.”

“It’s scary because I think it’s going to be like dominoes falling,” Stark said. “I think it’s going to be like abortion restrictions where we’re going to see huge swaths of the country without access to these services.”

That is, in fact, the point. These people are out of their everloving minds.

Abortion, Mifepristone, IVF: Reproductive rights and healthcare are under attack across the country — and they are directly impacted by your vote. 

This week, the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos are considered children, which has already resulted in two fertility clinics in the state pausing their IVF treatment programs. Abortion advocates have been raising the alarm since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. This latest ruling from Alabama is just one of many chilling and devastating attacks on reproductive rights.

However, these attacks didn’t stop voters from showing up to protect their rights at the voting booth — abortion has remained UNDEFEATED at the ballot box in the 2022 Midterms and 2023 Elections. Voters understand that abortion access and reproductive rights are directly impacted by making our voices heard in elections.

Register to vote right NOW at weall.vote/register, then remind 3 friends to do the same.

It's an ongoing frustration of mine that being around people who LGBTQ friendly and not, well, bigots tends to also mean not having anyone to talk to about how painful it was to realize I'd never be able to have kids. No one gets why I cry when I see babies sometimes.

"just adopt" "the world is overpopulated anyway" "having a kid is so self centered" "people think popping a baby out is some kind of accomplishment"

etc.

Just so many clueless cruel little comments. When I see gender reveal parties I don't really get the gender part, but the joy and excitement make total sense to me. I wish that could be me and my family excited to know we're going to meet a new person. We're going to get to do this thing that people have aways done. We get to be a part of it.

If I could be pregnant and if I could ever far enough in without another miscarriage that the gender of the child could be guessed at? Wow. I'd throw the biggest party ever. I'd throw rainbow confetti and be so happy. Children are little miracles.

To many people this is self-evident, beyond questioning. And that's most of what these parties represent to them. The joy of another life. But then they have to add in the layer of "gender enforcement" which ruins it. Which is why I don't feel like I can talk to them either about these feelings.

"Do you want a boy or a girl?" "It's better to have a boy first, so your girl will have an older brother." "Stop pretending you don't care about the gender" "the first one is hard but then you can just pop them out like its nothing"

So many clueless cruel little comments. When I watch gender reveal parties I wish that were me, I wish that weren't me. Can we keep the party and the joy, ... but skip the pink and blue?

So we could recognize that wanting to have kids is something normal, and it's a big deal. It's beautiful. It's important. It's complex and like many major life events everyone has different experiences.

Alabama, where they serve women's rights sunny-side up :: Clay Jones :: @claytoonz

* * * *

The Alabama Supreme Court decision regarding frozen embryos continues to cause chaos, confusion, and fear.

The Alabama Supreme Court ruled this week that a frozen embryo held in storage outside the human body is a “human child” for purposes of a wrongful death statute. Although the opinion deals with a civil lawsuit (not a criminal prosecution), the reasoning could be applied to murder prosecutions by the Alabama Supreme Court. The possibility of civil liability for wrongful death or criminal liability for murder arising out of in vitro fertilization procedures caused the largest IVF facility in Alabama to cease the fertility procedures. See CNN, Days after Alabama’s Supreme Court ruling that frozen embryos are children, one facility pauses IVF treatment.

There are reasons to believe that the rationale in Burdick-Aysenne v. Center for Reproductive Medicine will not be applied to the criminal context, as explained by Ian Millhiser in Vox, The Alabama Supreme Court’s IVF opinion saying embryos are children, explained. Millhiser’s explication of the legal reasoning in Burdick is superb; if you want to dig deep into the legal history and context, Millhiser’s article is the place to start.

Millhiser explains that “Alabama’s criminal homicide law applies only to “an unborn child in utero.” Frozen embryos stored in cryogenic freezers are not “in utero.” Therefore, any reasonable observer would conclude that the handling of frozen embryos stored in cryogenic containers are not “human children in utero.”

The problem is that at least one member of the Alabama Supreme Court invoked religious dogma in setting forth his rationale for joining the majority opinion. Chief Justice Parker wrote a concurring opinion that included the following:

Man's creation in God's image is the basis of the general prohibition on the intentional taking of human life. See Genesis 9:6. [T]the doctrine of the sanctity of life is rooted in the Sixth Commandment: "You shall not murder." Exodus 20:13 Aquinas taught that "it is in no way lawful to slay the innocent" because "we ought to love the nature which God has made, and which is destroyed by slaying him." Calvin explained the reason for the Sixth Commandment this way: "Man is both the image of God and our flesh. Wherefore, if we would not violate the image of God, we must hold the person of man sacred." In summary, the theologically based view of the sanctity of life adopted by the People of Alabama encompasses the following: (1) God made every person in His image; (2) each person therefore has a value that far exceeds the ability of human beings to calculate; and (3) human life cannot be wrongfully destroyed without incurring the wrath of a holy God, who views the destruction of His image as an affront to Himself. [Alabama law] recognizes that this is true of unborn human life no less than it is of all other human life -- that even before birth, all human beings bear the image of God, and their lives cannot be destroyed without effacing his glory.

But the fact that at least one member of the Alabama Supreme Court (the Chief Justice) believes that religious dogma and faith can and should supersede civil law, no reasonable person in Alabama should take comfort in the notion that the criminal laws apply only to “an unborn child in utero.”  

Caution is especially warranted given that Chief Justice Parker recently appeared on the podcast of a QAnon conspiracy theorist and endorsed the so-called “Seven Mountains Mandate a theological approach that calls on Christians to impose fundamentalist values on all aspects of American life.” See Media Matters, Alabama Supreme Court chief justice spreads Christian nationalist rhetoric on QAnon conspiracy theorist's show.

In short, resorting to legal reasoning and precedent may provide little comfort when the Alabama Chief Justice looks not at the state law and constitution but to the Bible and the commentary of Thomas Aquinas and John Calvin when deciding a civil action for damages caused by the destruction of cryogenically frozen embryos.

Alabama’s Supreme Court has inflicted cruelty and anxiety on thousands of couples trying to conceive and tens of thousands of medical professionals assisting them. Joyce Vance lives in Alabama. She posted the following on Wednesday:

Just contemplating my life in a state where frozen embryos have more rights than I do . . . .

Robert B. Hubbell Newsletter

In your ask game you said you story Exile was based on your own fertility journey and IVF experience. Was it successful? Or are you still going through it? You don't have to answer if you're not comfortable.

Hi anon👋🏼 thanks for the ask! I don't mind talking about my journey☺️ Putting this under a keep reading because it's a bit long, and maybe not something everyone is interested in hearing.

Right now I am in limbo.

After 3 years of trying for a baby, I began IVF treatment in September 2023 and we were lucky enough to end up with seven embryos🥹 However, my husband and I opted to have our embryos genetically tested prior to implantation. After that process, only one embryo was deemed healthy enough for transfer. That's our sweet boy, and he's currently on ice at the fertility clinic.

We were unable to transfer because shortly after IVF treatments, I became quite sick with a still undiagnosed lung condition. I am very short of breath and have scaring and irritation in my lungs that the doctors do not know the cause of or how to cure it. So that is a work in progress, but my latest CT Scan did show improvement, so I'm hoping we're getting closer to finding a cause and treatment.

Once my lung issues are treated, we will be able to commence treatment. I'm hoping that will be sometime this summer

I will likely go through another round of IVF to see if we can get more embryos. But if nothing else, we have our boy ready and waiting💙

Lucy's story in Exile will be a mix of my own experiences and other experiences I myself haven't yet lived. I'm excited to see where the story takes me and for Tim and Lucy to get their happy ending!

Just like wheat is not bread, embryos are not people

🫤 … “It’s a reminder how the world rushed to save embryos in Ukraine but in besieged Gaza no one seems to look at them or care about their suffering and the crimes committed by the Israeli gangs!

In just one shell, 5,000 embryos perish. This is the double standard: looking with one eye — discrimination based on color and gender!!” … 🫤

Art work/words by — @omarsommad …

Shout out to my fellow women, cis and trans, who are doing hormones for fertility and also gender-affirming care.

May the progesterone not eat us alive. May we not eat someone alive while on progesterone.