‘Pro-life’ legislation could make conception illegal for some
‘Pro-Life’ Measure Advancing In Several States Could Ban Some Couples From Conceiving Children
In September, Mississippi’s Supreme Court ruled that a ballot initiative to amend the state’s constitution to define embryos as persons could go forward in November. Since then, Dr. Randall Hines, one of four physicians in the state who perform in vitro fertilization, has been fielding panicked calls from women with fertility problems. ‘We have patients calling us who are extremely anxious,’ he says. ‘If they are contemplating IVF, they’re asking, ‘Do I need to go ahead and do it right now, before this becomes law?” […]
The so-called Personhood Amendment won’t outlaw all IVF, but it could drastically change how it’s practiced, making it less effective and more dangerous. ‘It’s certainly possible that certain IVF practices would become illegal,’ says Hines. ‘It could alter the way an individual patient and physician would interact. Quite honestly nobody knows what would happen, because this is uncharted territory.