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Latorya Beasley was supposed to undergo an embryo transfer this week at her clinic, Alabama Fertility, in hopes of having her second child through in vitro fertilization (IVF). But her plans were thwarted by a state Supreme Court ruling that halted IVF for many in the state. Now, she’s attending President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address as a guest of First Lady Jill Biden.
Beasley’s scheduled transfer, set for March 4, was canceled after the court’s decision that embryos have the same legal rights as people.
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Beasley spoke about her experience at a February 27 roundtable in Birmingham, Alabama, convened by Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra. She described learning her transfer was canceled at her doctor’s office and then getting hormone shots delivered the next day as “a gut punch.”
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“Knowing that I was willing, my doctor was willing, knowing that I have medicine that you need to use within a certain time period just laying on the floor, it’s hurtful. It’s just hurtful,” she said.
Beasley’s fertility journey had already been delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic, and she went through unsuccessful rounds of intrauterine insemination before she and her husband turned to IVF to conceive, she said. Their first round of IVF produced eight embryos, two of which were able to be used, and she underwent a successful transfer in April 2022.
Beasley said she knew she wanted three children, so in November 2023, she started preparing for another round of IVF, including stopping nursing her daughter and getting on medication to address her low blood pressure. She was cleared for a transfer and was “excited” at the prospect of having kids close in age like she’d always wanted.
“I’m in a group for infertility, and one of my group members, we kind of had a race — she wanted so badly to get her transfer date before me. But I got mine first,” Beasley said. “Well, again, surprise, surprise, because I got my transfer date for March the 4th, mine was canceled and hers is still able to go on as of today.”
Wednesday night, Alabama lawmakers passed legislation in response to the court’s ruling that aims to allow fertility clinics to resume treatment. But Beasley said at last week’s roundtable that what happened in Alabama is a warning sign for the rest of the country about the impact of the Supreme Court’s decision to end a federal right to abortion, which the Alabama court cited in its ruling on IVF.
“You don’t think it’ll happen to you until it does,” she said. “Roe v. Wade didn’t just touch on abortion, as we’ve seen — it can migrate into other areas of life that we haven’t even tapped into. So to say, ‘Just go to another state,’ that doesn’t fix the problem.”
The guests in the first lady’s box at the State of the Union address reflect the administration’s priorities and the themes of the speech. Biden is expected to highlight reproductive rights and renew his call for a federal law restoring Roe v. Wade in his address.
Also sitting in the first lady’s box will be Kate Cox, who made headlines this past December when she became the first adult since 1973 to ask a court to exempt her from a state’s abortion ban and let her terminate her pregnancy.
Cox, who lives in Dallas, sought an abortion after learning at 20 weeks of pregnancy that her fetus had a genetic anomaly known as trisomy 18, which is almost always fatal to the pregnancy. Babies born with trisomy 18 rarely live past their first birthday.
Texas’ abortion ban theoretically allows for abortions in cases where pregnancy threatens the pregnant person’s life. Citing her own medical history — including a risk of gestational hypertension and diabetes, and complications if she were to give birth — Cox and her attorneys argued in state court that she should qualify. A Dallas court granted Cox an exception, but the state Supreme Court intervened to block the decision. Cox ultimately left the state to terminate her pregnancy.
Biden at the time called the situation “simply outrageous.” Biden and the First Lady spoke with Cox in late January, thanking her for speaking out and inviting her to the State of the Union.
