In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) and Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART)

As Wisconsin Democrats Push First-Ever Pregnancy Loss Protections, State Republicans Advance Embryo ‘Personhood’

PUBLISHED 1/17/2026 by

In late 2025, Wisconsin Senate Republicans passed SB553, a bill that defines embryos, fertilized eggs and fetuses as “unborn children” and “human beings” from the moment of fertilization. The bill passed with the support of every Republican senator and opposition from all Democrats. SB 553 also attempts to redefine the word “abortion,” asserting that a termination performed to prevent the death of a pregnant woman is not an abortion if it is not “designed or intended to kill the unborn child.”

Doctors also warn that SB 553 quietly functions as a personhood law by stating that once an egg is a human being from the moment of fertilization. By granting fertilized eggs status as human beings, the bill is giving those eggs legal rights which are equal to those of their pregnant mothers. While Gov. Tony Evers has said he will veto the bill if it reaches his desk, Wisconsin state Sen. Kelda Roys says its passage reveals Republican lawmakers’ intent.

Roys recently introduced the Pregnancy Loss Protection Act, the first bill of its kind in Wisconsin. Its goal is to prevent overzealous prosecutors or law enforcement officers from targeting people who experience miscarriage or stillbirth, while also pushing back against a broader Republican effort to confer legal personhood on embryos from the moment of fertilization.

A Very Bad Year for Women’s Health

PUBLISHED 12/24/2025 by

When I started writing for The Contrarian, a funny-not-funny inside joke was whether there would be enough fodder for a weekly democracy column that overtly centers gender. I think you already know the punchline. Suffice it to say, I did not miss a single Wednesday in all of 2025.

For my final entry of the year, we thought it worthwhile to offer a snapshot—a year’s worth of reporting on the depth of damage this administration has wreaked on women’s health, with real-time Contrarian reporting noted.

Keeping Score: Democrats Dominate Key Elections; Federal Government Reopens After 43 Days; ICE Targets Childcare Centers

PUBLISHED 11/13/2025 by

In every issue of Ms., we track research on our progress in the fight for equality, catalogue can’t-miss quotes from feminist voices and keep tabs on the feminist movement’s many milestones. We’re Keeping Score online, too—in this biweekly roundup.

This week:
—Democratic candidates won elections across the country.
—At Crooked Con last week, Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) laid out her priorities for when Democrats regain power in Congress: “We’ve got to fix the Voting Rights Act, we have to deal with the money in politics, we have to deal with the Supreme Court and we need immigration reform.”
—ICE targeted childcare workers and is accused of inhumane detention conditions.
—Nancy Pelosi announced her retirement in 2027.
—Trump’s approval ratings continue to fall, a year out from the 2026 midterms.
—Many popular lubricants aren’t safe for vaginal health.

… and more.

Trump’s IVF Announcement Fails Families—But Duckworth’s Right to IVF Act Could Deliver

PUBLISHED 10/23/2025 by

Last week’s White House announcement is the equivalent of “politely [asking] companies to add IVF coverage out of the goodness of their own hearts—with zero federal investment and no requirement for them to follow through,” says Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).

There is, in fact, an alternative to the Trump plan: The Right to IVF Act, introduced by Sen. Tammy Duckworth, would require employer-sponsored health plans and public health insurance, including Medicaid and military plans, to cover treatments. The bill also addresses discrimination and forbids the restriction of access to IVF based on marital status or sexual orientation.

Republicans have voted it down twice.

Who Gets to Procreate and Parent? A Black Feminist Critique of the Pronatalist Agenda

PUBLISHED 10/17/2025 by , and

Pronatalism is not simply about encouraging births—it is a political project rooted in racism and control. Its goal is to engineer a future that permits only certain people to bear and raise children while coercing or punishing others for reproducing or parenting.

Adriana Smith’s experience of coerced reproduction is a devastating example: a Black nurse and mother declared brain-dead, yet kept on life support for months to sustain her pregnancy under Georgia’s restrictive abortion laws. This is what pronatalism looks like in practice—the state asserting ownership over a Black woman’s body.

As Black feminists, we understand that reproductive choices are personal, but they are also deeply shaped by structural power. Pronatalist leaders and influencers cloak their agenda in the language of family and morality, but in truth, they seek to restrict autonomy and consolidate control. Reproductive justice, by contrast, insists on every person’s right to decide whether and how to have children, and to parent in safety and dignity.

IVF Promises, Healthcare Cuts: The New Reproductive Hypocrisy

PUBLISHED 9/23/2025 by

In today’s political landscape, fertility has become a brand—plastered across speeches and press releases as a symbol of family values and new life. But behind the fanfare (and empty promises) of IVF expansion lies a much darker truth: Healthcare systems are collapsing, maternity wards are closing, and protections against toxic chemicals are being rolled back. The result is a reproductive paradox in which women are pushed to give birth in environments that are increasingly hostile to their survival.

This is not a coherent pro-family agenda. It is chaos disguised as care—fertility promoted when politically useful, maternal health ignored when inconvenient, and science dismissed when it interferes with corporate interests. Families are promised new beginnings, but stripped of the very resources needed to support them.

Until mothers and children are placed at the center of policy—not as props but as the purpose—the reproductive hypocrisy will persist.

Your Future on Ice: Why Younger Women Are Freezing Eggs—and What They Often Don’t Know

PUBLISHED 9/23/2025 by , and

Egg freezing allows fertility preservation even if you are not ready to be pregnant now, allowing you to take matters into your own hands. It enables you to preserve your ability to have genetically-related children later in life, while freeing you for other pursuits such as careers, seeking increased financial stability or simply finding the right partner without the pressure of the biological clock. It may permit women who partnered later in life to have a second or third child, even if conceiving the first child is uncomplicated.

Ideally, it is best to consider egg-freezing when you are under 35 to maximize both egg quality and quantity. The challenge for younger patients is freezing eggs at a point where you get maximum success without overkill. If there is still a high probability that a woman will conceive naturally, the time and money dedicated to egg freezing may be best spent elsewhere. The goal of freezing eggs is to ensure a high probability of success in the future, but not to freeze so early as to render the time, effort and expense unnecessary. In our estimation, between ages 31 and 34 is a sweet spot to freeze: early enough to avoid a decline in quality, but late enough to be potentially useful. We can freeze eggs earlier, but there is a reasonable chance you aren’t going to need them after all.

After Losing Two Babies, a Family Wrestled with Grief—Not Jail. Would Texas’ New Law Change That?

PUBLISHED 9/21/2025 by

What would you do if your pregnant wife learned that the baby you both desperately wanted was doomed to die just minutes after birth?

Suppose your baby had a fatal condition that prevented lung development, leaving no chance for survival—and that your only opportunity to hold the child alive would be as it gasped for air, turned blue and died in your arms.

Would you follow the wishes of Gov. Greg Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton—two men who know nothing about you or your family—and remain in Texas, risking your wife’s health and future fertility in service of their political party’s abortion bans that have no exceptions for babies with fatal fetal anomalies?

Trump’s IVF Walkback Opens the Door to a Catholic ‘Alternative’

PUBLISHED 9/3/2025 by | UPDATED 10/13/2025 at 9:03 P.M. PT

When Donald Trump anointed himself the “father of IVF” on the campaign trail, he promised to expand insurance coverage for in vitro fertilization—a move that was more pronatalist than pro-choice. In February 2025, Trump signed an executive order to explore reducing insurance-plan and out-of-pocket costs for IVF without a national insurance mandate. Now, reports indicate that the “father of IVF” is walking back his campaign promise just as a religiously motivated “alternative” threatens to enter mainstream medicine and be codified into law.