Pray for an end to IVF and the protection of human embryos: Join our prayer pledge
(LifeSiteNews) — Joining me on this episode of The John Henry Westen Show from the Bringing America Back to Life Convention is Catholic OB/GYN Dr. Alicia Thompson. We discussed why IVF is neither pro-life nor pro-family, alternative infertility treatments for Catholic couples, how she became pro-life, and more.
I began the episode by asking Thompson, based on her medical experience, what the issues are with in vitro fertilization (IVF). She first emphasized that many people don’t realize how harmful IVF and other assisted reproductive technologies (ART) are because these technologies are often presented as a method to build families.
“I think it’s very confusing because so many people look at [IVF] as ‘family building is beautiful,’” she said. “It’s a good and noble goal to want to bring life into the world and have a family, but they don’t necessarily understand how it’s being done and how it’s being employed.”
Thompson highlighted how, in reality, IVF is a gravely harmful, utilitarian practice.
“There’s a lot of embryos that are created, and typically less than 10 percent, and [in] some studies, it’s less than 5 percent, [that] are ever born in the next year,” she said. “So it’s a very disturbing process on how many embryos are lost.”
READ: Can we adopt frozen embryos? Catholic bioethicist weighs in
I jumped in to note that many of these embryos end up being frozen through cryopreservation and eventually dying. I further underscored that for every one unborn child that survives, nine are killed, so IVF is truly a pro-death practice. Thompson agreed.
A bit later, Thompson dove into how there are many faithful couples who are struggling with infertility who need an alternative to IVF.
“Unfortunately, about 30 percent of couples who experience infertility have an unexplained diagnosis,” she said. “That’s extraordinarily unsettling to people; they don’t understand why they are not fundamentally able to get pregnant the way that most people can.”
“Even if you cannot resolve the problem, the understanding of, ‘Well, why is it happening to begin with?’ is very unsettling, because if you don’t know why it’s happening, how are you treating it?” she added. “Are you treating it in a way that’s restoring fertility or in a way that bypasses fertility?”
READ: Former IVF doctor details the immoral nature of the embryo-destroying practice
She emphasized that couples struggling with infertility now increasingly have the option to see a Fertility Education and Medical Management (FEMM) specialist whose use of restorative reproductive medicine (RRM) aligns with Church teaching.
“There are now specialists, which didn’t even exist 10 years ago, on reproductive immunology, understanding how the immune system is playing a role,” she said. “This is just all opening up the field so that you’re not just left with, ‘Don’t do this over here, and then do nothing.’”
“I don’t think we should be a culture that says, ‘Don’t do IVF,’ but then not make anything else available to these couples who are suffering,” she added. “I thank God every day that this is really a horizon that is just coming broad open in front of us.”
To hear more from Dr. Alicia Thompson, tune in to this episode of The John-Henry Westen Show.
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Pray for an end to IVF and the protection of human embryos: Join our prayer pledge
