Protecting Right To Infertility Treatment Aim Of Kaine Legislation

A roundtable discussion Friday morning on the need to protect the availability and access to in-vitro fertilization was hosted by U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Virginia). He was joined at the Ballston event by IVF advocates, medical professionals, and parents who conceived their children using IVF.

"Patients have a right to access IVF services or other reproductive technologies," Kaine said. "Providers have a right to provide those services and technologies."

Kaine is co-sponsoring legislation with U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Illinois) that seeks to codify those rights in federal law. The bill comes in the aftermath of the Alabama Supreme Court's ruling that frozen embryos can be considered children under state law, which prompted several medical facilities in that state to pause IVF services.

The decision was issued in a pair of wrongful death cases brought by three couples who had frozen embryos destroyed in an accident at a fertility clinic. Justices, citing anti-abortion language in the Alabama Constitution, ruled that an 1872 state law allowing parents to sue over the death of a minor child “applies to all unborn children, regardless of their location.”

Although Virginia does not have the same restrictions as those in Alabama, the court's decision is seen by many as a potential threat to families seeking access to IVF and other fertility treatments.

On Thursday night, Kaine attended President Biden's State of the Union address with Elizabeth Carr. The 41-year-old Massachusetts resident was the first person to be conceived through IVF. She shared her story with the other members of the roundtable and discussed the importance of protecting families' access to IVF and other fertility treatments

"My mother always says, 'I had baby books that could explain God, death and taxes, but I didn't have a baby book that could explain infertility to me,'" Carr said. "So it's not lost on me now that we're finally at a place where we are talking about these issues, but we still have a long way to go in order to accomplish what we have to accomplish. It's going to take folks like RESOLVE to keep pushing and talking about these things."

RESOLVE: The National Infertility Association is a McLean-based organization that provides education, support and advocacy on behalf of the one in six people who face infertility.

Barbara Collura, RESOLVE's president and CEO, acknowledged that the Alabama decision has brought infertility to the center of the national debate on abortion rights.

"It was not lost on us that this is the moment, so we're doing everything we can to seize this moment," she said.

Kaine told Patch after Thursday's discussion that passing a federal law to protect families access to IVF would eliminate the legal hassle and uncertainty that was caused by the U.S. Supreme Court's Dobbs v Jackson decision, which opened the door for states to restrict a woman's access to an abortion.

"Alabama is saying, 'OK, we will not permanently prosecute you,' is not the same as saying 'we embrace IVF' and so it leaves a lot of gray areas," Kaine said. "It doesn't mean your licensing couldn't be affected, your credentialing couldn't be affected. We need to make this plain. If you're in America, you can build a family and it shouldn't rely on the ZIP code you live in or the state you live in."

Although Kaine was unable to get language in this year's budget bill, he plans to introduce legislation in the Senate Armed Services Committee later this year that would protect the rights of service members and their families who are seeking infertility treatment.

"This issue has assumed a higher level of awareness and importance, we feel pretty good about it," Kaine said. His hope is that if the bill passes, it would establish a model that could be replicated in ensuring the rights of Americans not in the military.

Many of RESOLVE's staff members and volunteers have had their own journey with infertility. Rebecca Flick, the organization's chief external affairs officer, told Patch that it was important for families dealing with infertility to share their stories with others.

"Infertility can be really isolating," she said "Even though one six people face it in their lifetime, because we take this on, especially as women, the perception is we shouldn't have any trouble getting pregnant and becoming parents. We feel like it's isolating. Once you open, up once you find support, once you start sharing your story, you get that power back. Infertility takes a lot of power away from you. You have zero control over what's happening. When you share your story and connect with others, when you advocate for yourself and for others, you get that power."