To mark the start of National Infertility Awareness Week, an Iowa embryologist and IVF provider is speaking out about dangerous attacks on access to IVF at both the state and federal level.
Zach Nunn has spearheaded these attacks for years. In the state legislature, he voted for legislation that could jeopardize Iowa women’s access to abortion, birth control, and IVF. Now in Congress, he’s refusing to sign onto bipartisan legislation that guarantees the right to IVF, making it clear he doesn’t believe Iowans should have the freedom to decide if, how, or when they should start or grow their family.
As a member of a team that provides in vitro fertilization (IVF) and an embryologist in the IVF laboratory, I’m deeply disturbed by the recent political attacks on fertility treatments.
Here in Iowa, the House of Representatives passed House File 2575, a bill that would penalize anyone who destroys embryos, intentionally or unintentionally. To put it simply, this bill could threaten patient’s access to fertility treatments. It puts health care providers like me at risk of being prosecuted, making it impossible for us to do our jobs and help people start families.
Worse yet, there are similar attacks at the federal level. Unfortunately, our members of Congress have made it clear they are on the side of banning IVF, not protecting it.
My laboratory serves patients in clinics based in Iowa City, Davenport, and Des Moines, sitting within the 1st and 3rd congressional districts, represented by Mariannette Miller-Meeks and Zach Nunn.
Even more alarming than their lack of action is their past attacks on fertility treatments.
While in the state legislature, Nunn and Miller-Meeks both voted for a bill nearly identical to the so-called “personhood” legislation that passed the Iowa House. Experts deemed it a threat to IVF access.
Thanks to the care we provide, countless people have been able to start a family after they had all but lost hope they would ever get the chance. It’s the honor of a lifetime to help people have the greatest gift of all: a family.
To those politicians who offer meaningless words of support but refuse to act and refuse to protect fertility treatments that simply help patients become parents — shame on you. You’re prohibiting people from achieving their dreams of parenthood. Iowans deserve better.
