They can’t
Republicans are in a pickle on this one. Look at the record:
Most House Republicans have cosponsored a bill declaring that life begins from the moment of conception, a position under increased scrutiny after the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos are “unborn children.”
This Congress, 125 House Republicans — including Speaker Mike Johnson — have cosponsored the “Life at Conception Act,” which states that the term “human being” includes “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.”
The bill does not include any exception for in vitro fertilization (IVF), a reproductive treatment that allows mothers to fertilize several eggs outside the womb in order to increase the chances of a viable pregnancy.
Several healthcare providers in Alabama have already halted IVF programs in the wake of the ruling, given that IVF treatments may include the discarding of fertilized eggs, which may now violate the state’s Wrongful Death of a Minor Act.
The lack of an IVF exception is notable, given the carveout contained within a previous version of the Life at Conception Act introduced by Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky in 2017.
“Nothing in this Act shall be construed to require the prosecution of any woman for the death of her unborn child, a prohibition on in vitro fertilization, or a prohibition on use of birth control or another means of preventing fertilization,” reads the 2017 bill.
Look at that. They actually took out an IVF exception. That’s a conscious act. Remember, these are people who believe that frozen embryos are babies that need to be adopted. They call them “snowflake babies.” (Maybe we can get a full Handmaid’s Tale program going to force prisoners to incubate them for all the people who are supposedly waiting in line to do that.)
They knew there was no way this monstrosity could ever become law while Roe was still in place. They were performing for their Christian fascist base. Now, all bets are off and they have to face what they have done.
Republican Rep. Alexander Mooney, the main House sponsor of the bill, did not respond to Business Insider’s request for comment on why that exception was not included.
Neither did spokespeople for Speaker Johnson, who largely controls the House floor and whose evangelical Christian views have entailed staunch opposition to abortion in the past.nt
“When a woman is pregnant, science tells us the new life she carries is a completely separate and fully new human being from the moment of fertilization,” Johnson said during a 2021 hearing on Texas’s 6-week abortion ban.
They knew what they were doing. Now there’s a mad scramble to distance themselves from the consequences of their actions, starting with Donald Trump who put out a statement in which he declared himself the savior of IVF but he’s the guy who loves to take credit for overturning Roe Vs Wade. And that decision was the basis for the Alabama Supreme Court ruling.