The Patient’s Choice: Implications for Fertility Treatment, Pregnancy, and the Birth of Abelian Children in the U.S. Senate
The latest bill is similar to those introduced before the Alabama Supreme Court ruling. Has your Republican colleagues heard anything since that decision was issued? Have you talked to Susan Collins of Maine or Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, for example?
Duckworth: No, because they’re covering their butts on this. They are trying to protect themselves. They’re the ones that pass the legislation. They put these extreme justices on the bench so they could pass these rulings. And by the way, it’s not just Alabama, families all across this country are not protected in terms of their access to reproductive health care.
I have been saying “Listen, we have a problem here” for a long time. I would not have been able to have children if I had given birth to all three of the eggs that were deemed non-viable. And my doctor in 2013 said, “Tammy, with these personhood amendments, these personhood definitions that these groups are pushing for, I could be convicted of manslaughter or murder for throwing out those three non-viable eggs, and so we could no longer practice reproductive medicine.”
Tammy Duckworth: Yes, so post my wartime service in Iraq, I’ve struggled for about 10 years with infertility attempting to conceive. I had to use in-vivo to have my two beautiful daughters, Maile Pearl and Abigail. I had many cycles of fertility treatments to get to this point where we have these gorgeous girls, even though it took ten years for Abigail to be born.
During her failed gubernatorial campaign in 2022, Lake said she supported the overturning of Roe v. Wade because she viewed abortion as an issue of state’s rights. Since launching her Senate candidacy, Lake often brings up the issue by speaking about supporting pregnant women in a way that encourages them to conceive, rather than have an abortion. And if elected to the Senate, Lake says she’d vote against a federal abortion ban.
“So it will prohibit abortion in Arizona, except to save the life of a mother,” Lake says on tape. “And I think we’re going to be paving the way and setting a course for other states to follow.”
Lake wrote on X that she will advocate for greater access to fertility treatment for women who are struggling to get pregnant. The joy of parenthood can be helped by the importance of IVF.
He points to the Alabama Supreme Court ruling as another example of Republicans in favor of reproductive freedom. Their actions don’t match the rhetoric, like the Senate’s appointment of the Supreme Court justices who voted against the abortion law.
When she says “I am for this now, but not at this time”, how can you choose someone who was saying “it is okay to arrest providers of abortion care?” in the past? “Are you okay?” Gallego asked.
Lake could not be reached for comment on her position on abortion. She made no mention of it during her speech at the conference.
The Ladder of Abortion Rights in Arizona: Why a Proper Voting Measure is Better than a Filibuster?
“It’s so important,” said Mini Timmaraju, president of Reproductive Freedom for All. “Reproductive freedom and abortion access are going to be the most important parts of the spear.”
Timmaraju said candidates are seizing on abortion as an opportunity to be proactive on the issue, rather than simply oppose abortion bans.
The endorsement of Reproductive Freedom for All, the organization that backed Democrat-turned-Independent Senator Kyrsten Sinema, would not have been made if he’d done away with the Senate’s filibuster.
“So the perfect thing is you have Ruben [Gallego] at the top of the ticket in the state, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris at the top of the ticket nationally,” Timmaraju predicted.
Timmaraju is also banking on a groundswell of support from an expected ballot measure to enshrine abortion rights in Arizona’s constitution. While some of his volunteers are gathering signatures for the abortion measure, they are also gathering signatures for the Gallego campaign.
Maryse was at the campaign event with Reproductive Freedom for All. While there isn’t any one issue that’s driving her to support him, she does recognize that the previous warnings of the end of federal protections for abortion rights have come to fruition.
I’m still learning about that,” he said. “I have to read through the whole initiative but I’m supportive of it.”
Source: In Arizona, abortion politics are already playing out on the Senate campaign trail
Timmaraju: Making sure we’re not the only ones fighting for the right kind of abortion and the laws that have been written to protect them
“The hard work is in tying it all together, and making sure folks don’t get zoned out from the flood of information that’s about to hit a state like Arizona in a presidential contest,” she said.
Timmaraju said she’s encouraged by the fact voters have always voted to protect abortion rights.