Republicans Prefer Rapists Having Babies Over IVF, Gavin Newsom Says

California Governor Gavin Newsom said Friday that Republicans are more supportive of rapists having children than couples using in vitro fertilization (IVF).

IVF treatments have become a flashpoint topic in the political sphere after the GOP-led Alabama Supreme Court ruled last week that frozen embryos can be classified as human beings. This led to widespread concerns that the decision could be used to criminally prosecute fertility clinics that use such fertilized embryos for IVF procedures.

IVF involves individuals struggling to get pregnant on their own attempting to have pre-fertilized embryos implanted into their uterus. Given that the procedures can often take multiple rounds of implantation to be successful, with some embryos proving non-viable, critics of the Alabama ruling have warned that clinics could be criminally tried for wrongful death for each embryo that fails to produce a viable pregnancy, effectively outlawing the procedure that has proven vital for many hopeful parents.

During a Friday appearance on CNN, Newsom, a Democrat, lambasted the ruling and highlighted the number of births that have been recorded in 14 states that were the result of rapes since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade in 2022 via its ruling on Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization. Numerous Republicans have spoken out against exemptions for pregnancies caused by rape or incest in proposing new anti-abortion laws.

"Everybody knows this, you saw the stats, 65,000 births due to rape since Dobbs in 14 states," Newsom told host Jake Tapper. "Apparently, what the Republican Party has said is the rapists have more rights to bring those babies to birth than families that are trying desperately to have the privilege you and I have had as fathers and parents. It is a disgrace, and it's a political problem for them, but it's a moral issue and I found what happened in Alabama disgusting."

Newsom was citing a study that was published last last month in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine.

In a statement provided to Newsweek on Saturday afternoon, Newsom's office stressed that IVF treatments are protected in California under the state's constitution.

"Californians have an express state constitutional right to reproductive health care and contraception as a result of Proposition 1 (2022)," a Newsom spokesperson wrote. "This constitutional right encompasses the right to choose IVF and other forms of reproductive health care."

In the wake of the Alabama ruling, its potential impacts have proven divisive even among Republicans. Numerous GOP leaders and lawmakers, including former President Donald Trump, have called for IVF treatments to be protected.

"Like the OVERWHELMING MAJORITY of Americans, including the VAST MAJORITY of Republicans, Conservatives, Christians, and Pro-Life Americans, I strongly support the availability of IVF for couples who are trying to have a precious baby," Trump wrote on Friday on Truth Social, his social media platform.

He added: "Today, I am calling on the Alabama Legislature to act quickly to find an immediate solution to preserve the availability of IVF in Alabama. The Republican Party should always be on the side of the Miracle of Life - and the side of Mothers, Fathers, and their Beautiful Babies. IVF is an important part of that, and our Great Republican Party will always be with you, in your quest, for the ULTIMATE JOY IN LIFE!"

In a recent memo, the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) urged candidates to oppose IVF restrictions with explicit language.

In an email to Newsweek on Friday, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall's chief counsel, Katherine Robertson, said that "Attorney General Marshall has no intention of using the recent Alabama Supreme Court decision as a basis for prosecuting IVF families or providers."

Nevertheless, Democrats and others have criticized these reactions from Republicans as hypocritical, highlighting their past stances against measures that would have protected IVF treatments in the wake of Dobbs.

In December 2022, a bill that would have created federal protections for IVF and fertility clinics, the "Right To Build Families Act", was blocked by Senate Republicans in a unanimous consent request. Trump's support of the treatments has also come under fire, as his Supreme Court appointees were seen as instrumental in the decision that ended Roe, a decision that was cited over a dozen times by the Alabama Supreme Court in its embryo ruling.