A Message from Sean Tipton and the ASRM Office of Public Affairs
Help us protect IVF and reproductive medicine by donating to the Advocacy in Action fund.
A Message from the Office of Public Affairs
Date: March 08, 2024
Author: ASRM
The Alabama Supreme Court decision hit our field like a tsunami. The idea of a court mandating that an in vitro fertilized egg was the same thing as a child is, on its face, farcical. As you know, if fully implemented, this exercise of extreme judicial overreach will have a devastating impact on fertility care.
As soon as the decision came down, ASRM sprang into action by:
- Convening a meeting of our Alabama members
- Issuing a press statement that gained national pickup
- Conducting and facilitating multiple media interviews
- Meeting with key stakeholders in Alabama
- Meeting and consulting with US HHS Secretary Becerra
- Briefing Congressional staff
- Filing an amicus brief in a request to rehear process.
- Participating in a by-invitation White House meeting
- Securing honored guest invitations for ASRM staff and multiple ASRM members to the State of the Union
More information on ASRM's advocacy activities is available here.
All of these actions require resources. While the news out of Alabama was deeply worrisome, the response has been remarkable. The outpouring of outrage from patients, physicians, politicians, and members of the public has been like nothing I have ever seen. But this too generates both risks and opportunities. We are already pushing for legislation in Congress and the states. It requires resources to analyze and, when necessary, advocate for or against these bills.
One of my favorite political adages is “never let a crisis go to waste,” and we are certainly practicing that. At our meeting at the White House, ASRM CEO Jared Robins, MD, implored the administration to extend fertility benefits to all civilian and military employees of the federal government. Throughout this process, we have asked elected officials eager to claim support for IVF to put legislation where their mouths are by supporting efforts to expand access to care.
All of this is to say we are extremely busy and need your help. The ASRM Advocacy in Action Fund was created in 2022 in the wake of the Dobbs decision. Thanks to your support, we have had the funds to hire lobbyists on the ground as key states have been debating abortion bills, to support reproductive medicine-related ballot measures in the states, and to hire additional lobbying power here in DC. We are grateful we have been able to deploy these additional resources in our fight to expand and protect access to reproductive care. But we desperately need more to ensure we are making the most of this once-in-a-decade inflection point in America.
Please consider a gift to the ASRM Advocacy in Action Fund. One hundred percent of all donations that come in between now and April 1 will be used to pay for additional lobbying power as needed in states and DC.
Thank you for your consideration and support. On behalf of my colleagues in the ASRM Office of Public Affairs, let me say how grateful we are to be your voice in policy circles as our nation grapples with these important issues.
Yours,
Sean Tipton
ASRM Chief Advocacy and Policy Officer
Donate to the ASRM Advocacy in Action Fund
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