This Piece responds to The New Abortion by Dov Fox and Mary Ziegler by critically examining their legal history of in vitro fertilization (IVF) regulation and their proposals for federal regulation to stave off regressive regulation. First, while admiring the value of their historical analysis, this Piece challenges the authors to delve more deeply into the internal dynamics of reproductive rights advocacy during the twentieth century...
Reproductive Technology
In vitro fertilization (IVF) presents a neglected puzzle. IVF is used to create nearly one in forty babies born in the United States each year. But it remains deeply underregulated and has rarely been subject to the usual wrangling on matters of reproduction. IVF’s regulatory vacuum gets chalked up to America’s polarization over abortion. Yet for half a century, our laws and politics have treated these practices nothing alike. Abortion’s...
Women are becoming increasingly disempowered in reproductive choice just as new technologies offer scientists and clinicians more power and discretion in selecting the types of children to bring into the world. As these phenomena converge, a gap in antidiscrimination law has emerged. Fertility clinic practitioners are free to refuse the transfer of embryos based on disability-related animus. Mothers unable to prove coverage under the Americans...