Arkansas health care workers support national call to protect IVF

Arkansas doctors have joined a nationwide network of health care professionals working to protect in vitro fertilization access in the wake of last month’s Alabama Supreme Court ruling that paused IVF services in the state.

Healthcare Workers for Reproductive Freedom formally launched its Save IVF campaign last week with the release of a letter signed by more than 2,100 healthcare workers urging policymakers to safeguard IVF. 

“This ruling is an attempt to set a legal precedent of ‘fetal personhood’…Establishing this precedent will not only lead to the end of abortion access entirely, but it will make in vitro fertilization (IVF) an impossibility and could even deem some contraceptive options illegal,” the letter states.

The Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos are children and if destroyed, a wrongful death lawsuit could be filed under an 1872 law. IVF providers in the state temporarily halted operations in response to the decision.

Little Rock gynecologist Dr. Chad Taylor said he signed the letter because he believes “there should be no legislative interference in the patient-physician relationship.”

Taylor, a board-certified OBGYN, is also part of an advisory group of health care workers that supports a ballot initiative that would guarantee a limited right to abortion in the Arkansas Constitution. 

“We want lawmakers to stay out of doctor’s offices; there’s no place for them in this kind of decision-making,” he said. “These decisions belong to patients and they belong to experts in health care.”

Earlier this month, the Alabama Legislature passed a bill to restart IVF services, but one clinic said it falls short of providing sufficient protection for health care providers. 

Taylor said he welcomes legislation like this to protect gray areas, but ultimately wants a commitment to let doctors and patients “govern ourselves when it comes to these important medical decisions.”

“These are real people trying to grow their family in a very difficult way, and they share their fears and their concerns with their doctors…it’s the doctors and the health care workers that are in those offices holding the tissues with the patients while they cry and we’re not able to provide our best because we’re limited, and nature throws people challenges all the time,” he said.

Healthcare Workers for Reproductive Freedom co-founder Dr. Marcela Azevedo said lawmakers do not understand the medicine behind the policies they’re passing and how these can have unintended consequences that can cause patients a lot of harm.

Azevedo has fought for reproductive rights in recent years as the founder and president of Ohio Physicians for Reproductive Rights, a group that supported a ballot initiative to enshrine abortion in Ohio’s constitution. 

Last November, 57% of voters approved the measure, and through that work, Azevedo said they connected with health care workers around the country facing similar challenges. 

Healthcare Workers for Reproductive Freedom naturally grew out of that effort, and Azevedo said the Alabama IVF ruling spurred the group to speak out more formally. 

“We all felt that together we had to show that we are here, we are in the background still connecting and still discussing and still fighting to just elevate the rights of our patients nationwide,” she said. “And we thought it was time to make that known and that we’re certainly not going anywhere.”

Bipartisan support

U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson said last week that it should be left up to the states, not Congress, to preserve IVF access. 

Arkansas state Rep. Aaron Pilkington, R-Knoxville, agreed because “government that’s closer to the people is always the best way to do it.”  

Pilkington said he’s not aware of any discussion about IVF legislation in Arkansas, but he wouldn’t be shocked to see it in next year’s legislative session.

For now, he said Arkansas’ pro-life movement is more focused on the fight against the proposed abortion amendment, which is “taking up the oxygen of other issues.”

Arkansas governor’s campaign manager leads abortion amendment opposition group

The proposed Arkansas Abortion Amendment of 2024 would allow abortion within 18 weeks of fertilization and in cases of rape, incest, fatal fetal anomaly or “to protect a pregnant female’s life or to protect a pregnant female from a physical disorder, physical illness, or physical injury.” 

Arkansas law only allows abortion to save the life of a pregnant person in a “medical emergency,” making it one of the strictest bans in the nation.

More than a half dozen ballot question committees have formed in opposition to the proposed ballot initiative, including one led by the governor’s campaign manager. 

As a Catholic, Pilkington said he wouldn’t personally use IVF because it’s not permitted by the church. However, the Republican state rep has family and friends who’ve used IVF, and Pilkington said he would likely support legislation to protect it, though he’d want to read the bill first. 

“I would guess a large majority of my colleagues would be in favor of protecting IVF in Arkansas,” he said. “I haven’t heard a single person talk about getting rid of IVF. If anything, it’s been on the opposite about well, we need to make sure that it’s protected.” 

Pilkington said this issue provides an opportunity for unity in the Legislature, noting that there “is a lot of working across the aisle and synergies that exist in Arkansas that maybe people don’t see as much.”

As an example, Pilkington points to his work with Little Rock Democrat Rep. Ashley Hudson on a new law that creates support systems for pregnant and parenting teenagers in public schools. 

Support systems for pregnant and parenting high schoolers become Arkansas law

Hudson said she would “of course” support legislation to protect IVF access in Arkansas because when it comes to sensitive choices that women are making with their physicians, lawmakers “shouldn’t be legislating away their ability to do that.”

“We have some really great IVF clinics here in Arkansas that allow women who have struggled with fertility issues and other medical issues to fulfill a dream of being able to start their own family, and I think that trying to create obstacles to those desires is not a very pro-life position,” she said.

Hudson said she may be an optimist, but she believes there are aspects of reproductive rights that are negotiable and have room for bipartisan support. Even with the divisive nature of abortion, she said people on either side of the issue have similar aims of keeping people healthy and protecting women and families. 

With IVF, there are several overlapping interests, including medical freedom, family building and increasing women’s abilities to have children,” Hudson said. 

“There’s a lot of appeal on both sides of the aisle for issues surrounding those things, so I do think that there’s room for that discussion, that there’s room for that discussion to be productive,” she said. “I’m not saying it’s going to be a slam dunk, but I think that there’s room for it.”