{"id":307972,"date":"2024-03-05T06:52:24","date_gmt":"2024-03-05T12:52:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=307972"},"modified":"2024-03-04T12:09:48","modified_gmt":"2024-03-04T18:09:48","slug":"pro-abortion-missouri-coalition-exploit-ivf-abortion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/pro-abortion-missouri-coalition-exploit-ivf-abortion\/","title":{"rendered":"Pro-abortion Missouri coalition exploits IVF scare to promote and expand abortion"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A new ballot measure is being considered in Missouri to protect in-vitro fertilization (IVF), but the group behind it isn’t just seeking to ensure life can be created by ethically questionable assisted reproductive technology \u2014 they support ending<\/em> it, too.<\/p>\n

The Kansas City Star reported<\/a> that Missourians for Constitutional Freedom<\/a> have proposed a constitutional amendment to protect “reproductive freedom.” The amendment<\/a> would protect not only IVF within the state of Missouri, but abortion as well<\/em>.<\/p>\n

In the petition, the group calls for the government to protect a person’s “fundamental right to reproductive freedom,” which the petition includes as prenatal and postpartum care, but also birth control and abortion. It is assumed that IVF would be included in the measure as well.<\/p>\n

The effort to make abortion a constitutional right has been ongoing since last year<\/a>, though there have been legal battles over the wording. Cole County Judge Jon Beteem struck down much of the language, removing phrases like \u201cunborn child,\u201d \u201cpartial-birth abortion,” and \u201cend the life.” The group has since responded to the Alabama IVF situation, arguing that the influence of \u201cextremist politicians in Alabama is exactly what we\u2019re fighting to end here in Missouri.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alabama’s Supreme Court ruled<\/a> in February in favor of several couples who sued a fertility clinic after their embryos were destroyed. In LePage v. Mobile Infirmary Clinic, Inc<\/em>, the Supreme Court found that embryos created via IVF are to be treated as human children under the state\u2019s wrongful death statute, which quickly sent the nation into an uproar among those concerned that IVF would become threatened. Alabama politicians quickly responded by rushing to pass bills protecting IVF, and Missourians for Constitutional Freedom appears to have moved to exploit the situation.<\/p>\n