As the infertility treatment comes under threat nationally, here’s how local politicians have weighed in on IVF

As a surrogate, Sarah Burtis allowed a couple struggling with infertility to make a family. It wouldn’t have happened without in vitro fertilization.

“Two wonderful people would not have become parents. Being a parent is the best thing on the planet, in my opinion – the best thing you could ever do. I don’t want anyone who is worthy of being a parent to be prevented from the experience,” the Spokane woman said.

The practice has come under scrutiny following an Alabama Supreme Court ruling that restricts it by saying embryos created through IVF are people. Following last month’s ruling, some politicians on both sides of the aisle in Capitol Hill are moving to protect the treatment.

The Alabama Supreme Court ruled that since life begins at fertilization under Alabama law, disposal of these embryos constitutes a wrongful death.

In his majority opinion, Alabama Supreme Court Justice Tom Parker wrote that IVF would not comport with the “sanctity of human life” as long as it continued the “prevailing practice of creating and transferring at once many embryos that have little chance of survival and then throwing embryos away after a while.”

To skirt these restrictions, clinics would not be able to fertilize more than the single embryo used to impregnate an individual. This creates the need to continually harvest new eggs and fertilize embryos in an expensive, cumbersome process.

“To fertilize an egg and then grow them into embryos, that costs about $9,000 each time you do it, whether it is for one embryo or for nine. A normal person can’t imagine paying $9,000 over and over when they could just do it once,” said Seattle Reproductive Medicine reproductive specialist Dr. Sarah Houmard.

As a result of the newfound restrictions in the state, many clinics paused all IVF treatments. Houmard called it a “tragedy” that physicians cannot treat their patients for the “human disease of infertility.”

“I fear for the people in Alabama. I fear for the providers in Alabama. I fear for us all,” she said. “Because that would be a tragedy to not be able to offer patients treatment for their disease.”

How IVF works

With IVF, an egg is fertilized using sperm outside of the body, allowing the embryo to grow and then returning the embryo to the body for manually impregnation.

Houmard said women and others with the capability of becoming pregnant typically experience infertility either because they do not ovulate or their fallopian tubes are blocked. IVF was introduced in the 1980s to treat this latter issue. In these cases, an individual still has functioning ovaries and can carry a pregnancy to term. Since sperm cannot get through the fallopian tubes, fertilization in IVF occurs outside the body.

Approximately 25-30% of patients have an unexplained reason for their infertility, according to Houmard. These patients and others could conceive through IVF, though less invasive options are available.

Hormone shots are used to stimulate egg production in the ovaries, and many are typically harvested from the body. Typically all of these eggs are fertilized. One is then chosen to be transferred back to the body, and the rest are frozen for future pregnancies or donation to another couple. Embryos with genetic abnormalities are often discarded, as well as embryos parents do not want to keep frozen.

Burtis has worked as a surrogate for a couple who could not become pregnant on their own. The couple’s embryos were fertilized with IVF, then Burtis was impregnated. Over the course of the last four years, Burtis gave birth to both of the couple’s children.

The infertility journey does not come without setbacks. In both her pregnancies with the couple, the first embryo transfer did not work. If the couple had not been allowed to fertilize and freeze multiple embryos, they may have been unable to try again.

“It took four different embryos for me to succeed at two different times. They made six to eight embryos overall,” Burtis said. “What are they going to do with those embryos? Are we going to force parents to have six, seven or eight kids when they don’t want that? I don’t think that’s fair.”

Politicians rush to protect IVF

Following the Alabama ruling, Democrats moved to connect anti-abortion Republicans to the effort to restrict IVF.

In remarks on the Senate floor, Democratic Washington Sen. Patty Murray called the Alabama decision “Republican ideology in action.”

“Many of the same Republicans saying they care now about IVF are literally, right now, cosponsors of legislation that would enshrine fetal personhood into law and make IVF unavailable nationwide,” Murray said. “You cannot support IVF and support fetal personhood laws. They are fundamentally incompatible.”

The “Life at Conception” bill introduced last year would have defined “human being” as someone at “all stages of life, including the moment of fertilization, cloning, or other moment at which an individual member of the human species comes into being.”

One-hundred and 25 U.S. House Republicans co-sponsored the legislation, including Idaho Rep. Mike Simpson, Oregon Rep. Cliff Bentz and Spokane-area Washington Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers. While Democrats argue the bill uses the same justification as the Alabama ruling, Republicans argue the bill is unrelated to IVF.

“Cathy supports access to IVF so that every person in Eastern Washington has the chance to experience the blessing of starting a family. This legislation would simply say the view of Congress is that life begins at conception. Suggesting that it bans or in any way limits access to IVF is factually incorrect,” a McMorris Rodgers spokesperson said in a statement.

Simpson said he would support a bill protecting IVF procedures should it come to a vote.

“Throughout my time in Congress, I have proudly supported pro-life policies that protect the lives of the unborn, empower mothers, and support families. There is nothing more pro-life than supporting parents in their efforts to have children. I wholeheartedly believe that Americans looking to become parents or grow their families should have access to IVF treatment, and I will support an IVF protection bill if put on the House floor,” Simpson said in a statement.

Senate Democrats attempted to bring such a bill to a vote in that chamber last week. Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth brought the bill under unanimous consent – meaning it took only one senator’s objection to scuttle it. That objection came from Mississippi Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, who called the IVF bill a “vast overreach” by the federal government that would “subject religious and pro-life organizations to crippling lawsuits.”

Democratic Washington Sen. Maria Cantwell linked the issue directly to abortion rights – calling the effort to limit IVF “the next front of the anti-choice crusade.”

“Today, our Republican colleagues chose to block legislation that would allow millions of Americans to continue to use IVF to help expand their families. These personal medical decisions belong to families, not the government,” Cantwell said in a statement.

Republicans on Capitol Hill stressed they support IVF but want its protection to come from the state and not from the federal government.

Crapo supports access to IVF for Idahoans.

“States should act on IVF, not Congress,” Idaho Republican Sen. Mike Crapo spokesperson Melanie Lawhorn said in a statement.

Those efforts are currently underway in many states under Republican control. On Thursday, the Alabama state House of Representatives passed a bill providing criminal and civil immunity for any damage or death of embryos during IVF.

According to the Idaho Statesman, a bipartisan group of Idaho state legislators is moving to clarify law in the state to explicitly allow IVF.

Where is IVF available?

IVF and infertility treatment broadly are highly specialized practices. Neither of the major hospital systems in Spokane provide the treatments, and neither do major providers in North Idaho.

“Providence does not provide in-vitro fertilization services. We do offer a range of fertility services such as fertility preservation. We do not offer every clinical service at our facilities, allowing us to focus on select areas of clinical excellence that our communities need,” the hospital system said in a statement.

There are currently two clinics in Spokane that provide IVF services for Eastern Washington, North Idaho and Western Montana.

The Center for Reproductive Health opened in Spokane in 1998, and its team often travels to the Tri-Cities and Missoula, Montana to treat patients, according to its website. Seattle Reproductive Clinics has a number of locations on the West Side. There is also a clinic in Spokane Valley that opened in 2013.

“I see many patients from North Idaho,” Houmard said. “The only infertility practice in Idaho is in Boise. And for most people that live in the North Idaho area, it is very much easier to come to Spokane.”