Biden’s State of the Union guests include mother whose IVF was canceled and Kate Cox
An Alabama mother who saw a second round of IVF canceled after the state supreme court ruled that embryos were children and a Texas mother forced to travel outside her state for a doctor-recommended abortion were due to attend Joe Biden’s State of the Union address on Thursday, as guests of the first lady, Jill Biden.
The White House said the cases of LaTorya Beasley of Birmingham, Alabama, and Kate Cox, from Dallas, Texas, showed “how the overturning of Roe v Wadehas disrupted access to reproductive healthcare for women and families across the country”.
Roe v Wade, the US supreme court ruling that guaranteed federal abortion rights, was overturned by the rightwing-dominated court in June 2022.
Last month, the Alabama IVF decision caused national uproar. As Democrats seized on a rightwing threat to reproductive rights of the kind that has fueled a string of successful election campaigns, Republicans scrambled to say they supported IVF. On Wednesday the Republican Alabama governor, Kay
Ivey, signed a law protecting IVF providers.
In a statement, the White House said: “Stories like Kate’s and LaTorya’s should never happen in America. But Republican elected officials want to impose this reality on women nationwide.”
Amanda Zurawski, a Texas woman who nearly died of septic shock when she was denied a medically necessary abortion, is also due to attend.
Republicans are on the defensive. At an event hosted by Axios in Washington on Thursday, Byron Donalds, a far-right Florida congressman touted as a vice-presidential pick for Donald Trump, parried repeated questions about whether federal protection was needed but said: “IVF is a procedure many couples use throughout our country.” Donalds also said he supported six-week abortion bans.
The head of Donalds’ caucus, Mike Johnson, the US House speaker, also used his State of the Union guest list to highlight reproductive rights as an political issue, inviting Janet Durig, executive director of the Capitol Hill Pregnancy Center in Washington DC, described as “one of the hundreds of pro-life centers or churches targeted and vandalised” after the fall of Roe v Wade.
State of the Union guest lists are political by definition. Johnson’s list reflected the Republican agenda, highlighting crime (which is down nationwide), the fallout from the withdrawal from Afghanistan, and support for Israel in its war with Hamas.
Among Johnson’s guests were two