NEW VIDEO: Hawley Caught Lying About Being Pro-IVF, Despite Risk To IVF Access In Missouri
While Hawley lies about being “100% pro-IVF” despite having a long and recent record of being anti-IVF, he’s now admitted he won’t back actual efforts to protect IVF in Congress. He’s even falsely claiming those efforts are “really about abortion” (they’re not) — proving his views are unchanged from when he pioneered anti-IVF legal arguments now being used to threaten the practice across the country.
Independence, MO — While being confronted by reporters about efforts in Congress to protect access to IVF for Missouri families, Josh Hawley admitted he won’t support those efforts — despite saying just days ago he was “100% pro-IVF.” Those efforts were then blocked by Senate Republicans last night.
In the video, Hawley went even further, falsely claiming that pro-IVF efforts in Congress are “really about abortion” to cover for lying about being “100% pro-IVF.”
See for yourself: (watch on YouTube here; watch on Twitter here; or download without captions here)
This comes after recent reporting by The Guardian uncovered that “Hawley said the morning-after pill, “may induce an abortion by preventing implantation of a fertilized egg’, in effect the same logic accepted by justices at the Alabama supreme court that led to shutdowns of IVF.”
Hawley’s arguments, now being used across the country to challenge IVF access, even poses a risk to IVF access in Missouri. As said by experts in reporting by The St. Louis Post-Dispatch: “Missouri law says that life begins and conception and ‘unborn children have protectable interests in life, health, and well-being…’ because the issue has yet to be heard by the Missouri Supreme Court, there is not yet assurance that these questions about fetal personhood won’t develop into an issue for those seeking IVF.”
In addition to opposing pro-IVF efforts in Congress, Hawley opposes the effort in Missouri to put a constitutional amendment to protect reproductive rights on the ballot in 2024 — an effort that would also secure IVF access for Missouri families.
Lucas Kunce responded with the following:
“Last week, Josh Hawley was exposed for pioneering arguments used in an anti-IVF ruling. Then, Monday he said he’s ‘100% pro-IVF’ after days of pressure. Now, he’s ‘skeptical’ about a pro-IVF bill because ‘those bills are about abortion.’ So, does Josh Hawley even know what IVF is, or is he just a liar?”
To be fair to Hawley, nobody is surprised that he’s not going to support any effort to protect access to IVF. Hawley didn’t just make arguments now being used to ban IVF — he also recommended and confirmed known anti-IVF judges, even when they faced bipartisan opposition in the Senate for their Big Brother views.
In 2019, Josh Hawley recommended Sarah Pitlyk to serve on the U.S. District Court in St. Louis. Josh Hawley voted to confirm her, despite bipartisan opposition, and she serves in that post today. Sarah Pitlyk is “vigorous[ly] oppos[ed] to abortion, surrogacy and in vitro fertilization.”
While Hawley has tried to obfuscate his feelings about IVF and the recent court ruling as he runs for re-election, his closest allies in the activist legal community have been more clear about how he likely feels.
The Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) is a group of activist lawyers that has paid Hawley thousands of dollars. Hawley’s wife is also senior counsel at ADF, where she led on the Dobbs case to overturn Roe and now leads the case to ban mifepristone nationwide.
ADF called the Hawley-inspired ruling a “tremendous victory.”