Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) and his wife, former Rep. Gabby Giffords (D-Ariz.), opened up about their past struggles with fertility treatments and highlighted the importance of alternative reproductive options that they say are being undermined by politicians.
in Personal essay In an article published in People magazine on Thursday, Kelly and Giffords described how a gunman in 2011 took away their dreams of having children and their fears that politicians could do the same to Americans.
In 2011, Giffords was shot at a political event in Tucson, Arizona, killing six people and wounding several others. Two days after the shooting, Giffords and Kelly were scheduled for a consultation at the Washington, DC facility where Giffords was undergoing IVF treatments.
The couple, who wed in 2007, said they were “a little late” in marrying but wanted the opportunity to have children together – Kelly has two daughters from a previous marriage.
“We wanted to grow our family together and were fortunate to be able to pursue the only option available to us – IVF – for which Gabby was unable to make an appointment,” Giffords and Kelly wrote. “In recent months, we have seen our reproductive freedom come under increasing attack without the protection of the law.Roe v. Wade,My heart aches for couples who suddenly no longer have the ability to decide when and how to start their family.”
Although IVF treatment is expensive and highly invasive, the couple noted that it is the “safest” and in some cases, the only way for some couples to have children.
Both Kelly and Giffords, who retired from Congress in 2012 to focus on her recovery, pointed to a variety of landmark court decisions and legislative efforts that have brought IVF back into the political spotlight in recent months.
In Alabama, the state Supreme Court ruled in February that frozen embryos are children and that those who destroy them can be held liable for their deaths. IVF services were largely halted in the state, but lawmakers quickly passed a bill addressing the civil and criminal liability of IVF providers, and some providers have resumed services.
In Giffords and Kelly’s home state of Arizona, the state legislature passed a bill in 2023 that would make child support payments retroactive to the date of a positive pregnancy test. Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs said:veto the billwrote that the bill “directly threatens the reproductive rights of Arizonans.”
In Congress, more than 130 House RepublicansCo-sponsor of the Life at Conception Billwould grant personhood “at the moment of conception, cloning,” or some other mechanism of creation. Meanwhile, all but two Republicans in the Senate voted against a motion to force a vote on a bill that would grant women a nationwide right to receive in vitro fertilization.
“Despite this real threat, Republican lawmakers have repeatedly blocked bills in recent weeks that would have protected all Americans’ access to IVF and contraception. The truth is, there is a real risk that our country will fall further behind than ever before,” the essay states.
The recent controversy over IVF and other reproductive rights “is not happening by chance,” Giffords and Kelly argued, blaming former President Trump and his judicial appointments.
President Trump has taken credit for the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade by appointing three conservative justices to the court.
“Donald Trump himself said he broke it.Roe v. Wade,“This has sparked a wave of attacks on reproductive freedom,” the essay states. “Twenty states now ban abortion, including Arizona, which is caught between two anti-abortion laws that both endanger women’s health and threaten doctors with prison time.”
Kelly, 60, is serving his first term as a senator, which expires in 2029.
