Today is one of several days in the recent history of this country that I wish I didn’t have to live through. What happened today isn’t just about protecting babies. Because our babies can’t even be protected in schools. Our babies can’t even be protected with universal healthcare. Our babies don’t even have access to freaking formula. It’s about continuing to strip rights from those that aren’t white men.
In about 14 years our daughter, Alyza, who has Fragile X will be a legal adult. And if by then the laws haven’t changed in this country (and I sure pray to the Almighty that it does), I will take the first plane out with her to the country with the best reproductive resources so she can freeze her eggs and have children (if she chooses to one day) – all free of Fragile X. These would potentially be children free of developmental disorders that will NOT require her as a mother to continually take them to several therapy appointments every week either for the rest of their lives or until they show signs of improvement after several years in a country with no universal healthcare.
For our own family planning, this presents a lot of questions on what the impact will be in the coming months. With one genetically normal and one genetically abnormal frozen embryos, we could be breaking the law with either one of them. If we choose to transfer the normal one someday, and if it implants and leads to a pregnancy, in the event we have to terminate for ANY medical reason during the pregnancy we may not even have the option to. Especially in the backwards, Republican-led state of Georgia. And if we decide we never want to pursue using the genetically abnormal embryo, we may not even have the option to discard it because some states who consider life to start at the embryo will deem it illegal.
IVF itself is at risk without Roe v. Wade. So f*ck the Supreme Court. We are certainly moving farther and farther away from being the greatest country in the world.