Healthcare Under Attack

Floor Speech

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Ms. JACOBS. Madam Speaker, 3 years ago during my first year in Congress, I froze my eggs, which means I went through the initial stages of IVF, except that after egg retrieval, my eggs were frozen and stored.

For weeks, I took hormone pills, gave myself injections, and went to the doctor for checkups. Then I had a procedure under twilight sedation to harvest my eggs.

Many people use IVF if they are single or LGBTQ+, if they are older or experiencing fertility issues or have suffered multiple miscarriages, but no matter the reason for IVF, it should be a valid and viable choice for anyone.

Unfortunately, IVF, like many reproductive healthcare options, is under attack in the courts and here in the Halls of Congress.

Madam Speaker, 184 of my Republican colleagues have cosponsored legislation that supports ``fetal personhood'' giving embryos the same full legal rights as a person.

This fringe ideology is dangerous and could be used to prosecute people for miscarriages or for having an abortion and could potentially affect access to birth control, too.

It could threaten access to IVF. During IVF, doctors often create more fertilized embryos than they plan on using, because some may be genetically unviable or result in miscarriages.

I have 17 mature eggs frozen. Patients like me pay for the storage of our eggs or embryos, and eventually some embryos are usually donated for medical research or destroyed.

Fetal personhood legislation, and even court rulings like the one in Alabama, could force patients to pay for storage of their embryos forever or leave clinics liable to criminal charges if embryos are damaged. That is why at least one IVF clinic in Alabama is ending the service.

This is just the beginning. Last week, Supreme Court Justice Alito acknowledged fetal personhood in his line of questioning in Moyle v. United States, a case that could decide the future of emergency abortion care.

I say this to my Republican colleagues: You can't support fetal personhood and support IVF access. You can't falsely claim to be pro- life and then rip away people's dreams of having children, and you can't hide and try to bury your true end goal.

I call on all 184 House Republicans, including Speaker Johnson, who have cosponsored legislation that would treat embryos as children and threaten access to IVF and other reproductive health services to come to the House floor and publicly remove their name from this bill, prove that they support IVF access, prove that they support families, and prove that they are not a hypocrite.

Madam Speaker, I now yield to the gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Neguse).

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Ms. JACOBS. Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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