Tennessee has a dubious new distinction amongst the Southern States:  She is the first State in Dixie to pass a law recognizing a person’s ‘right’ to contraception and in-vitro fertilization (IVF):

‘In a legislative session dominated by the GOP supermajority’s conservative agenda, Tennessee lawmakers this spring took the unusual, bipartisan step of protecting certain reproductive rights.

‘Beginning July 1, Tennessee will become the first — and only — state in the South to have codified the right to access fertility treatments and birth control into state law.

‘Introduced by two Republican women and signed into law by Gov. Bill Lee, the legislation protects Tennesseans’ access to in vitro fertilization (IVF) and a range of birth control methods — reproductive health options that have not, in modern times, been restricted in the state but now have safeguards into the future’ (Anita Wadhwani, ‘Tennessee to become first state in South to protect access to IVF, birth control,’ tennesseelookout.com).

The relevant passage from the law itself, HB 533, reads,

‘Notwithstanding another law, an individual has a right to engage in activities associated with fertility treatment and contraception. The laws of this state do not prohibit an activity associated with fertility treatment or contraception. The law of this state clearly and unambiguously acknowledges the right of an individual to perform, and the right of an individual to receive or use, fertility treatment and contraceptives in this state’ (capitol.tn.gov).

This is a double defeat for unborn children and their adult advocates in the pro-life community, as both contraception and IVF result in the killing of unborn babies at the earliest stage of life.  And not just a small number, either.

Katy Faust, who heads the child advocacy organization Them Before Us, gives some grisly details on IVF:

‘“When you look at the numbers that we are able to put together, what we see is IVF, big fertility, the baby-making industry, victimizes about 4 million children every year in terms of violating their right to life,” Faust told LifeSiteNews.

‘“Contrast that with abortion and Planned Parenthood, which victimizes ‘only’ 1 million children every year. So, if you believe the children have a right to life from the moment of conception, you have to be highly critical of IVF and you don’t want the federal government subsidizing it.”

‘There is no way to know exactly how many embryos – i.e., human beings – are killed through IVF. However, there were around 435,000 IVF cycles performed in the U.S. in 2021, according to the CDC, with each cycle producing multiple embryos. At the same time, only around 98,000 infants were born through IVF that year. This means that millions of babies are either frozen, aborted, miscarried, or otherwise discarded in the process of IVF every year’ (Andreas Wailzer, ‘EXCLUSIVE: 4 million babies victimized by IVF every year, says pro-family activist Katy Faust,’ lifesitenews.com).

Along with artificial pregnancy processes come things like prenatal screening, which leads t0 more abortions by scaring women about the potential health problems of the tiny babies they are carrying in their wombs.  Denmark offers a cautionary example:

‘Back aways, we reposted a story that told the grim truth about the fate of babies with Down syndrome in Denmark. In 2019 there were virtually none—just 18!

‘When I read “The last children of Down Syndrome” by Sarah Zhan, I immediately thought of the 2017 story from CBS News about Iceland titled “What kind of society do you want to live in? Inside the country where Down syndrome is Disappearing.” Zhan’s is a brilliantly written piece that appears in the Atlantic magazine.

‘The subhead puts the story in the larger context: “Prenatal screening is changing who gets born and who doesn’t. This is just the beginning.”

Nobody questions the legality of abortion in Denmark, Zhan writes.

‘“Danes are quite open about abortion—astonishingly so to my American ears—but abortions for a fetal anomaly, and especially Down syndrome, are different.

‘They still carry a stigma.”

‘Why this is so is the thread that runs through this long must-read story.

‘The backdrop is that “in 2004, Denmark became one of the first countries in the world to offer prenatal Down syndrome screening to every pregnant woman, regardless of age or other risk factors,” Zhang explains. “Nearly all expecting mothers choose to take the test; of those who get a Down syndrome diagnosis, more than 95 percent choose to abort.” The few babies born with Down syndrome are typically because of a “misdiagnosis” or because the parents are told the odds of having a baby with an extra chromosome were almost infinitesimally small.

‘One of the questions raised is why women abort and how influential gloom and doom prognostications can be’ (Dave Andrusko, ‘Denmark Has Killed Almost Every Baby With Down Syndrome in Abortion,’ lifenews.com).

So much for IVF.

Moving on to contraceptives, Priestmonk Kosmas has much to say about how they do not simply prevent pregnancies but also act as abortifacients.  Here is the crux of what he writes:

‘What evidence is there that they can cause abortions?

‘Even though there are motives and actions taken to hide this information, most pharmaceutical companies and the medical community in general continue to admit that hormonal contraceptives and copper IUDs can prevent a fertilised egg (embryo) from implanting in the uterus and/or destroy the fertilised egg directly. As a reminder, hormonal contraceptives do this by thinning the lining of the uterus, while copper IUDs do this by producing an inflammatory reaction, which creates a toxic environment. This toxic environment can either damage or destroy a fertilised egg, but it can also prevent its implantation.

‘What is the evidence regarding hormonal contraceptives?

‘i) The website Healthy Women, known for its authoritative medical information, states the following: “Hormonal birth control using estrogen and progestin (a form of progesterone) stops the ovaries from releasing eggs and changes the uterine lining so it won’t support a fertilized egg.”

‘ii) The popular and highly-regarded website Verywell Mind discusses how hormonal birth control methods work by: “making it difficult for a fertilized egg to attach itself to the uterus by thinning the uterus lining”’ (‘Who Should We Listen to Regarding Contraceptives and the Avoidance of Having Children?’ orthodoxtalks.com).

In addition to their child-killing properties, contraceptives also threaten women’s health, which Father Kosmas details elsewhere in his essay.

Though touted as pro-family and pro-woman, IVF and contraceptives do violence to both women and families.  But without IVF, does that mean that there are no options for infertile husbands and wives who want to conceive?  That is a false statement:

‘Women deserve doctors who treat their bodies as whole, interconnected systems, not as broken machines that need to be bypassed with synthetic hormones and lab-created embryos. Real medicine identifies and heals the underlying causes of infertility. Restorative reproductive medicine (RRM) (like NaProTechnology) does exactly that—without creating “excess” embryos or financing an industry that profits from violating children’s rights’ (‘BREAKING: Trump Announces New IVF Plan,’ thembeforeus.substack.com).

Southern States and other Red States have now been warned.  Tennessee is an early test case.  Pro-abortion forces were able to sneak into law a measure that protects two potent child-destroying methods.  They must be all the more vigilant that something similar doesn’t happen in their own legislatures.  The health of their women and their families depends upon it.