House Bill 428, a piece of Republican-led Georgia legislation, would create a right to undergo in vitro fertilization (IVF) in the state. The impetus behind the bill was several lawmakers’ personal appeals of using the process to grow their own families.
The legislation’s prime sponsor, Republican state Rep. Lehman Franklin, explained that he chose to introduce HB 428 – despite national controversy regarding the ethics of the technology – because he and his wife used it to conceive their own child.
“I have a real personal connection with this bill and with what we’re trying to do here,” Franklin stated. “We wanted to do IVF one last time, and we did it and it worked, and I’m ecstatic to say that now, she’s pregnant with a little girl that’s supposed to be born June 4. And so, we’re super excited about it.”
Notably, Franklin acknowledged he and his wife attempted three prior rounds of IVF before being able to implant an embryo successfully. The death of multiple embryos in the course of undergoing IVF is generally considered a standard fact of the procedure, whether the embryos die in the process, or are frozen and later destroyed; one study showed that nine embryos is considered the optimal number to create in order to result in a live birth.
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“This means that up to eight embryos may not survive or will be frozen or destroyed,” explained Dr. Lauren Rubal, a board-certified OB/GYN and integrative medicine physician with a subspecialty in reproductive endocrinology and infertility, in an educational video for Live Action.
“So effectively, you are choosing the death of nine to get the life of one. Even though you have good intentions — you just want life — you’re also choosing all of the consequences that follow.”
In signing on to co-sponsor HB 428, democratic state Rep. Esther Panitch also shared that her daughter plans to use IVF to expand her own family, as she cannot conceive naturally due to a medical condition. Panitch shared, “So, for her and for all the other young women who need it, and young men who want to start families, it’s a great thing.”
For many in the pro-life community, the greatest difficulty of pushing back against the ethics of IVF is a desire to support would-be parents longing to experience the beauty of creating life. Physicians who oppose IVF on a moral level, such as Dr. Rubal, encourage couples struggling with fertility issues to pursue restorative reproductive medicine to uncover and treat the causes of infertility rather than engage with the predatory IVF industry.
