Let me count the ways…
Minnesota Rep. Melissa Hortman
May she rest in power
The assassination on June 14 of Minnesota lawmaker Rep. Melissa Hortman was a devastating and tragic loss. According to 19thnews.com, during her tenure as the Speaker of the House in Minnesota, which ended this March, the 55-year-old played a key role in shaping what legislation the chamber would prioritize. The mother of two worked closely with Governor Tim Walz to “enact a slew of progressive policies” including major investments in children and families, as well as expanded protections for reproductive rights.
The suspect, Vance Boelter, posing as a police officer murdered Rep. Hortman and her husband, Mark, at their home in a Minneapolis suburb on Saturday morning. Gov. Walz described the killings at a news conference as an apparent “politically motivated assassination.”
In 2023, Rep. Hortman led the Minnesota House in passing the PRO Act, which codified the legality of abortion and other forms of reproductive health care in the Midwest state. In further bills, the legislature eliminated other restrictions on reproductive healthcare, passed protections for abortion providers, upped state funding for clinics providing reproductive healthcare and eliminated funding for anti-abortion counseling centers.
“We are heartbroken by the tragic loss of Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband, and the shooting of Senator John Hoffman and his wife,” said Miraya Gran, a member of Minnesota Building Families Coalition as well as a co-founder of State Strong. “Both lawmakers have listened to our stories and supported our fight to family-building access. We are deeply grateful for their service to all Minnesotans. Our thoughts are with their families and all who are grieving this unthinkable loss.”
May she rest in power…
Still Waiting….
Back in February, which sure does seem like a long time ago, President Trump signed an executive order – the directive changes neither the law nor policy – aimed at expanding access to IVF. This was hailed by the White House as the President fulfilling yet another campaign promise, as he stated last summer that the government or insurance companies would cover the cost of IVF "for all Americans that need it." They announced a self-imposed deadline of 90 days to work on what exactly all this was going to look like.
That date has come and gone. And yet so far...crickets.
That's pretty unfair to the one in six Americans who suffer from infertility, many of whom need IVF to start or grow their families. And it has, no surprise from this administration, sown lots of confusion about what exactly is happening and when something will be announced. We have heard from a number of medical practitioners who work in the fertility healthcare space that the announcement of the EO four months has made a number of their patients think that they were going to be getting free IVF after the announcement. It got hopes up only to then have doctors and nurses have to deflate those expectations.
Going through infertility is the pits. Truly. And we speak from experience so to confuse and mislead people on such a sensitive topic truly is beyond the pale.
Wednesday, Illinois Senator Tammy Duckworth (above photo), who herself went through IVF to have her two daughters, introduced the Protect IVF Act. Since the first Trump administration saw Roe overturned in the Supreme Court, there have been persistent assaults on reproductive freedoms, which has included access to fertility healthcare including IVF. This bill, in essence, aims to safeguard IVF at a federal level so what happened in Alabama last year doesn't happen in other states. The bill, which was co-sponsored by Patty Murray (D-WA), Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), would create a statutory right for Americans to access IVF, a right for doctors to provide treatments aligned with medical standards and for insurance carriers to cover IVF treatments with no limitations or impediments. The law would also override any effort by a state to limit access and make sure that both those accessing IVF and those medical experts administering IVF will not be punished for helping people start or grow their family.
While we are doubtful this bill will go anywhere in a Republican-led Senate, we are thrilled that Sen. Duckworth is fighting the good fight over IVF. Meanwhile, the White House, which never even released a statement about the California IVF clinic bombing last month, remains silent.
And it is oh so deafening...
If you’re asked to be interviewed, be wary…
We have recently heard of a few projects where “filmmakers” are approaching people in the fertility healthcare space and asking for interviews. They are purposefully misconstruing their projects and, as we understand, skewing interviews in post-production to actually be anti-IVF. Please be extremely cautious about people presenting themselves as journalists or documentary filmmakers. If you’re unclear, please reach out to us at statestrongcoalition@gmail.com for guidance because it’s essential to be careful with your messaging and to do background research on who has contacted you before you agree to a media interview.
A few for your summer reading list
There are a plethora of new books out in the last few months on surrogacy. Just in time for Pride, Charlie Melvoin, a gay dad with two kids, has just released Intending: A gay dad's guide to surrogacy that is fully available online. (And because it's a small world, not only did Charlie and his husband use the same agency and reproductive endocrinologist as State Strong co-founder Ginanne Brownell, but their kids are now also classmates).
“Intending” is Charlie's firsthand account of two surrogacy journeys across three years (2017-2020). In 2017, Charlie started taking notes to document the process and preserve his original perspective. Over the subsequent seven years, those scribbles grew into a comprehensive tale combining practical details, anecdotes, and reflections. It also grew, organically, into a happy gay memoir—something Charlie found to be disappointingly rare in the genre. Written with candor and humor, the short chapters cover every aspect of navigating the surrogacy landscape in the U.S. He hopes it will be a helpful resource for anyone considering surrogacy or underway with it, and a fun read for anyone curious about the topic.
Meanwhile, there is a fantastic graphic novel, A Tale of Two Surrogates by two academics, Elly Teman and Zsuzsa Berend, which came out last month. The book explores the often complicated emotional, medical, legal, and ethical issues surrounding assisted reproduction. Based on more than a decade of ethnographic research conducted by Dr. Berend, sociologist and Dr. Teman, an anthropologist, this book presents, in an accessible graphic novel format, the intertwined stories of two fictional women who decide to become gestational surrogates.
It immerses the reader in the worlds of Jenn, from California, and Dana, from Tel Aviv, as they decide to become surrogates and make sense of the process, involve their families, and manage their relationships with the intended parents. The experiences of these composite characters highlight various paths, interpretations, and experiences that are common in surrogacy. Interspersed throughout the narrative are short interludes that depict surrogacy in other countries, putting the stories of Dana and Jenn in a more global context.
Plus, of course, a plug for Elusive Mommyhood, by Ginanne Brownell, which is both a personal memoir and a journalistic deep-dive into world of fertility treatments and surrogacy from a global perspective, shedding light on the evolving debates, historical contexts, and personal stories.
It’s all great summer reading!