Project 2025 partner president makes misleading claims about IVF and hospital treatment of women dealing with miscarriages

Written by Media Matters Staff

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Two claims from Family Research Council President Tony Perkins in this clip are misleading.

First, on IVF, Perkins denies that women have been forced “to travel out of state for in vitro fertilization treatments.” There have been reports to the contrary after Alabama's Supreme Court ruling that imperiled IVF. From CNN:

Yesterday, Goidel was days away from having her eggs retrieved at an Alabama fertility clinic, after three miscarriages and more than a $20,000 investment in a grueling in vitro fertilization journey. Now, she and her husband are packing for a flight to Texas tonight, in hopes of salvaging their shot at a successful pregnancy.

After the Alabama Supreme Court ruled last week that frozen embryos are considered human beings and those who destroy them can be held liable for wrongful death, fertility clinics throughout the state began pausing IVF treatments out of fear of legal prosecution.

Goidel said her provider, Alabama Fertility Specialists, called her Thursday morning and told her because she is so far along in the IVF process, the clinic was still willing to retrieve her eggs – but could not make any guarantees about whether they would be able to use them to make embryos, store or ship them.

At least one IVF clinic in Alabama has announced plans to shutter due to litigation concerns.

Second, Perkins claims that he is not aware that “that pro-life laws in various states are prohibiting doctors for treating women who show up at a hospital because of a miscarriage.”

Perkins should read more news articles, because this has been widely reported. From The Associated Press: 

More than 100 pregnant women in medical distress who sought help from emergency rooms were turned away or negligently treated since 2022, an Associated Press analysis of federal hospital investigations found.

Two women — one in Florida and one in Texas — were left to miscarry in public restrooms. In Arkansas, a woman went into septic shock and her fetus died after an emergency room sent her home. At least four other women with ectopic pregnancies had trouble getting treatment, including one in California who needed a blood transfusion after she sat for nine hours in an emergency waiting room.

...

In Texas, where doctors face up to 99 years of prison if convicted of performing an illegal abortion, medical and legal experts say the law is complicating decision-making around emergency pregnancy care.

Although the state law says termination of ectopic pregnancies isn’t considered abortion, the draconian penalties scare Texas doctors from treating those patients, the Center for Reproductive Rights argues.

“As fearful as hospitals and doctors are of running afoul of these state abortion bans, they also need to be concerned about running afoul of federal law,” said Marc Hearron, a center attorney. Hospitals face a federal investigation, hefty penalties and threats to their Medicare funding if they violate the federal law.

The Family Research Council is a Project 2025 partner.

From the September 12, 2024, edition of Family Research Council’s Washington Watch

 

TONY PERKINS (HOST): In Tuesday night's presidential debate, Vice President Kamala Harris gave a rambling and incoherent statement that seemed to imply the Supreme Court's overturning of Roe v. Wade had forced women to travel out of state for in vitro fertilization treatments.

…

PERKINS: It remains unclear what the vice president meant by that political word salad. I mean, IVF is legal in all 50 states, and I'm not sure where the plane and the strangers came in.

Well, joining me now to discuss this is Dr. Marguerite Duane. She is a board-certified family physician and the executive director of FACTS, the Fertility Appreciation Collaborative to Teach — Collaboration to Teach the Science, an organization dedicated to educating health care professionals and students about the scientifically valid natural-based family planning methods. Dr. Duane, welcome to Washington Watch.

MARGUERITE DUANE: Thank you so much for having me.

PERKINS: Now let me ask you, are you aware of any place in the country where IVF is not allowed?

DUANE: No. I'm not aware that IVF is not available throughout the country. My understanding, again, I'm not a lawyer. I'm a physician. But to my knowledge, IVF is legal. But where women do need to travel extensively is to seek physicians who are trained to provide comprehensive reproductive health care through a restorative lens, one that's really designed to treat the underlying causes of infertility. 

And in fact, I've had patients drive four to six hours to see me to receive the kind of care that I'm trained to provide, and we currently train physicians across the country to provide. Again, care that is real women's health care that seeks to identify underlying causes of infertility and treat those through a restorative reproductive approach.

PERKINS: And is also respectful of human life.

…

PERKINS: You mentioned the miscarriages and the vice president, her comments there suggesting that pro-life laws in various states are prohibiting doctors for treating women who show up at a hospital because of a miscarriage. Again, I'm not aware of that.

DUANE: And it's simply not true. And I can tell you, as a physician who cares for patients who regularly experience miscarriage, we are trained to provide both medical and surgical treatments to treat miscarriage. Now the difference between a miscarriage and an abortion is with miscarriage, the embryo has already passed. The heart has stopped beating. The child is no longer alive.