Moving forward from Alabama’s mindblowing setback to women’s health 

America’s women’s health cannot rest.

In the same week that First Lady Jill Biden announced $100 million in federal funding for women’s health research and development, the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that a fetus is a child, It effectively froze access to infertility treatment.

Federal investment in women’s health research has taken women’s health an important step forward, but an Alabama court has taken women’s health two steps back.

The problem is that In vitro fertilization (IVF), a complex process that can lead to pregnancy for those facing infertility. IVF typically involves hormone injections and the procedure of retrieving an egg, fertilizing it, and implanting her resulting embryo or embryos into a woman’s uterus.

This process usually produces more embryos than can be transferred or transferred. Healthcare providers can select and transfer the healthiest and most viable embryos from a broader pool of embryos. What the clinic can do with these “extra” embryos is the crux of the issue. Unimplanted embryos are typically stored for a period of time and then ultimately disposed of.

If those embryos are considered human, how can they be disposed of without fear of legal repercussions? Previously standard practice in IVF treatment, clinics may face criminal prosecution. is as follows. Pause those services. As a result, women are losing access to vital fertility services.

No matter your political or religious beliefs, restricting access to safe, effective and essential health care is bad for women. But in Alabama, difficult situations like infertility and the struggle to have a child are more complex, stressful, and difficult.

Pregnancy is already a risky proposition. American women die during pregnancy or shortly after giving birth. double rate nearest high-income country. Black and Hispanic women Maternal mortality rate is 2-3 times higher compared to white women.

Still, millions of women go to extraordinary lengths to conceive.by Pew Research CenterAlthough only 2 percent of women in the United States have undergone in vitro fertilization, nearly half have used some kind of fertility treatment or know someone who has. Pew data shows that although infertility treatments cut across demographics and political lines, infertility treatments are more common among higher-income groups, likely due to cost and lack of insurance coverage. ing.

For women and couples with infertility, maintaining a pregnancy can be extremely difficult. Although the IVF process is safe, it can be long, uncomfortable, and stressful. And in the end, there is no guarantee of success.

IVF is not only physically and mentally taxing, but it can also be expensive. most states Because insurance companies are not required to cover IVF or other infertility treatments, many women and their families end up paying for these treatments out-of-pocket. The cost of one IVF cycle is as follows: $15,000 and $30,000typically requiring multiple cycles.

Now, even this difficult and expensive process may disappear, leaving few, if any, options for women who cannot conceive a baby without intervention. Health care providers will lack confidence in their ability to do no harm and simply practice medicine according to scientific standards, and will be forced to take their eyes off the patients they serve.

Women and their doctors need to be able to take advantage of all available medical advances to manage their care so that they can have healthy and successful pregnancies. There should be no room for outside parties or criminal retaliation in a trusted doctor-patient relationship.

For women trying to have a baby while facing infertility, the last thing they want is added stress and anxiety. Instead, we should aim to create a safe environment for all women who want to become pregnant.

While the Biden administration has the right idea to invest in research to improve women’s health, especially for women who are trying to conceive, it’s important that we don’t retreat as a country in how we handle this issue. The medical community and the policy makers who regulate it should do everything possible to support these efforts and choose to move forward to ensure the highest quality of women’s health.

Martha Nolan is a senior policy advisor at Healthy Women.