Reproductive Rights Prof Blog

New York Times Magazine Examines 30 Years of IVF

New York Times: In Vitro We Trust, by Peggy Orenstein:

Louise Brown turns 30 on Friday. These days, her name elicits little more than a mystified head shake. Who was she again? Let me refresh your memory: Little Louise was the world’s first “test-tube baby,” what we now refer to as an I.V.F. kid, or simply “the twins down the block.”

Brown’s life today is as unremarkable as the circumstances of her conception have become: she’s worked as an administrative assistant in Bristol, England, and is married with a naturally conceived toddler of her own. It’s hard to imagine that she begat one of the major revolutions of the 20th century: since her debut, more than three million babies have been born worldwide using I.V.F. or other reproductive technologies.

Young, Single Men Turn to Vasectomies for "Liberation"

Via Feminist Law Professor Bridget Crawford:

The August 2008 issue of Details magazine reports on a new “trend” in young men receiving vasectomies. In  ”The Birth-Control Extremists” Richard Morgan writes:

[L]ately, vasectomies are becoming the province of young, single men who claim to be tired of worrying about their partners’ vigilance with the Pill. So rather than use condoms—less than ideal in terms of pleasure and, compared with vasectomies, which have an estimated 1 in 2,000 failure rate, only so-so on the contraception front—they’re opting for a permanent fix. * * *

Men taking responsibility for birth control is a salutary move, but Details author Morgan fails to mention that condoms are not just contraceptive devices (duh).  They are also a means to reduce or eliminate the risk that one will give (or get) a sexually-transmitted disease.  In the AZT era, are young men not concerned about HIV infection?  Genital warts, anyone?  And will vasectomies be just another “excuse” for men to avoid condom use?  (”Don’t worry, baby, I got snipped.”) 

Full post is here.  The article is available here.

Study Shows Men's Age Affects Success of Pregnancy

Medical News Today: Man's Age Affects Pregnancy Success And Miscarriage Rate In Couples With Fertility Problems, by Catharine Paddock:

Researchers in France studying over 12,000 couples with fertility problems found that when the man was over 35 pregnancy rates fell and perhaps more surprisingly, miscarriage rates rose, leading them to conclude that the age of the father was just as important as the age of the mother in reaching a successful pregnancy.

The findings are being presented today, Monday 7th July, at the 24th annual conference of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE) in Barcelona, Spain, by lead investigator Dr Stephanie Belloc, of the Eylau Centre for Assisted Reproduction in Paris, France.

NY Times Magazine Examines Declining Population in Europe

NY Times Magazine cover story: No Babies?, by Russell Shorto:

...In the 1990s, European demographers began noticing a downward trend in population across the Continent and behind it a sharply falling birthrate. Non-number-crunchers largely ignored the information until a 2002 study by Italian, German and Spanish social scientists focused the data and gave policy makers across the European Union something to ponder. The figure of 2.1 is widely considered to be the “replacement rate” — the average number of births per woman that will maintain a country’s current population level. At various times in modern history — during war or famine — birthrates have fallen below the replacement rate, to “low” or “very low” levels. But Hans-Peter Kohler, José Antonio Ortega and Francesco Billari — the authors of the 2002 report — saw something new in the data. For the first time on record, birthrates in southern and Eastern Europe had dropped below 1.3. For the demographers, this number had a special mathematical portent. At that rate, a country’s population would be cut in half in 45 years, creating a falling-off-a-cliff effect from which it would be nearly impossible to recover. Kohler and his colleagues invented an ominous new term for the phenomenon: “lowest-low fertility.”...

CO: Ballot to Include Const'l Amendment Defining Fertilized Human Egg As Person

Associated Press: Anti-abortion measure OK'd for Colo. ballot, by Dan Elliott:

DENVER (AP) — A proposed state constitutional amendment defining a fertilized human egg as a person was certified Thursday for the November ballot, moving Colorado a step closer to an election battle over abortion rights....

Kristi Burton, the prime mover behind the measure, said her group, Colorado for Equal Rights, will target voters who personally oppose abortion but don't want to impose their views on others.

Burton said polling shows those voters make up about 20 percent of the electorate.

"Our job is to put the truth out there for the voters," she said. "Science is on our side."

Opponents say the proposed amendment could affect birth control because the most widely used form of contraception works by preventing fertilized eggs from attaching to the uterus.

They also say the measure could deter in-vitro fertilization and s tem cell research and bar doctors from treating women with some forms of cancer.

UK: MPs vote on abortion time limit and other bills

The Press Association: Commons vote on abortion time limit:

MPs are squaring up for a Commons showdown over the abortion laws as a sustained attempt is mounted to cut the time limit for the first time in 18 years.

A series of Commons amendments will give MPs the chance to vote for a reduction in the current 24-week limit to between 22 and 12 weeks....

The "Pro-lifers" suffered a setback on Monday night when a series of amendments which they had tabled to the Human Embryology and Fertilisation Bill were comfortably defeated in the Commons.

One amendment banning the creation of "hybrid" human-animal embryos for the purposes of stem cell research was voted down by 336 to 176, while another preventing the creation of so called "saviour" siblings was defeated by 342 to 163.

However, with MPs from all parties again being given a free vote, many at Westminster believe that divisions on the time limit for abortions could be far tighter.

Surrogacy Sees Increased Media Coverage

Wall Street Journal: Outsourcing Childbirth, by Cheryl Miller:

"Katie is coming out of the mommy closet," Caroline (Maura Tierney) teases her sister Kate (Tina Fey) in the film "Baby Mama," out in theaters today. Kate, a hard-charging executive at a Whole Foods-like grocery chain, seems to have the perfect life -- except, oops, she forgot to have a baby. Cursed with a misshapen uterus, she turns to a surrogate agency, which assigns a wacky South Philadelphia girl, Angie Ostrowiski (Amy Poehler), to carry her baby.

Surrogacy itself seems to have come out of the mommy closet, to judge from recent media coverage. The New York Times and the Boston Globe have both reported on the practice of outsourcing wombs to poor Indian women. On a recent cover of Newsweek, the abdomen of a pregnant woman appeared with the words "Womb for Rent" emblazoned upon it. The issue's lead story, "The Curious Lives of Surrogates," ignited a small media frenzy with its sensationalistic revelations about military wives cashing in as surrogates -- in part by bilking their government-provided health plans.

New Bush Appointee to Lead Title X Family Planning Program Opposed Contraceptive Coverage

Steph Sterling of the National Women's Law Center, writes for Womenstake:

Last month, we wrote about the Family Research Council’s decision to oppose the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, in part because it gives states the option of providing "family planning services" to low-income women. Why, you ask, are "family planning services" in quotation marks? Ask the Family Research Council. We don’t know why, but their action alert refuses to use the term without them.

Now, it looks like a Family Research Council alumna is going to make good use of quotation marks. We’ve gotten word from our friends at the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association that Dr. Susan Orr, former Senior Director for Marriage and Family Care at the Family Research Council, has just been tapped to oversee the Title X “family planning” program. The Title X program is a critical part of our country’s health care safety net for low-income women, providing contraceptive care and other preventive health services to more than 5 million women each year.

Unfortunately, it looks like the Bush Administration has chosen yet another person who opposes birth control to run it. Dr. Orr cheered when the Bush Administration tried to eliminate contraceptive coverage guarantees for federal employees, and used to work for Wade Horn, the Administration’s point man on abstinence-only programs that promote gender stereotypes and censor information about contraceptives. She even opposed the District of Columbia's contraceptive equity bill that would have ensured that women with private health insurance had equal coverage of prescription contraceptives. "Family planning" indeed.

For more on Dr. Orr and the Family Research Council, see "RealTime: Contraception Foe to Head Population Affairs" (RH Reality Check).
 
Planned Parenthood has a petition opposing the appointment of Dr. Orr.

Single in vitro methods works for women over 35

Via ScienceDaily:

STANFORD, Calif., Oct. 2 (UPI) -- An in vitro fertilization technique to avoid multiple births appears to be effective for women older than age 35, California researchers report.

Senior author Dr. Amin Milki, of the Stanford University School of Medicine, said that more than half of the women in the study became pregnant after undergoing a single blastocyst transfer, which transferred just one embryo into the womb.

The American Society for Reproductive Medicine currently recommends doctors transfer two or more embryos into women older than 35, to maximize a patient's chance of becoming pregnant, however, this can result in twins or higher-order multiples.

Activists Challenge Colarodo Voting Initiative Defining Fertilized Eggs as Persons

Via RH Reality Check (8/10/07):

A veritable who's who of reproductive health champions filed a legal challenge with the Colorado Supreme Court late yesterday to stem a proposed ballot measure that would advance anti-abortion law and limit access to some contraception methods.

The action is designed to thwart a proposed state constitutional amendment that was initiated by the recently-formed Colorado for Equal Rights. The group won approval last month to begin collecting ballot petition signatures to ask Colorado voters to decide: is a fertilized egg a person with legal rights and Constitutionally-protected due process?

Yesterday's Supreme Court challenge was filed on behalf of seven Colorado women all long time advocates of reproductive choice: Ellen Brilliant (affiliation unknown); Trudy Brown (affiliation unknown); Toni Panetta (NARAL Pro-Choice Colorado); Lizzy Annison (Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains); Vicki Cowart (Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains); Cathryn Hazouri (American Civil Liberties Union); and Jacy Montoya (Colorado Organization for Latina Opportunity and Reproductive Rights). 

The opponents' concerns were outlined in a press release issued by Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains:      

Defining a fertilized egg as a person in the state constitution would have sweeping consequences. "As providers of reproductive health care Planned Parenthood is gravely concerned about what this measure could mean for women using birth control to prevent unintended pregnancies, as well as couples using in vitro fertilization to start their families," said Annison. "We are still trying to understand the implications for giving an egg access to the courts by granting 'equality of justice' and protecting its 'due process of law.' Defining an egg as a person in the Colorado constitution is extreme."

LA Times: Multiple births, multiple risks

Shari Roan reports for the Los Angeles Times:

Two weeks ago, Brianna Morrison gave birth to six babies in Minneapolis. Less than a day later, Jenny Masche delivered six babies in a Phoenix hospital. Both of the women had been treated for infertility and had used fertility-enhancing drugs.

The two families expressed joy, but many fertility doctors were dismayed. For years, doctors have been pushing to lower the rate of multiple births due to fertility treatment. Not only had two headline-grabbing births occurred in the same week, but several recent scientific papers also revealed mixed results in the eight-year effort to reduce the U.S. multiple-birth rate.

Natalie Angier on Sperm

Natalie Angier writes in Sleek, Fast and Focused: The Cells That Make Dad Dad (in today's New York Times):

We are fast approaching Father’s Day, the festive occasion on which we plague Dad with yet another necktie or collect phone call and just generally strive to remind the big guy of the central verity of paternity — that it’s a lot more fun to become a father than to be one. “I won’t lie to you,” said the great Homer Simpson. “Fatherhood isn’t easy like motherhood.” Yet in our insistence that men are more than elaborately engineered gamete vectors, we neglect the marvels of their elaborately engineered gametes. As the scientists who study male germ cells will readily attest, sperm are some of the most extraordinary cells of the body, a triumph of efficient packaging, sleek design and superspecialization. Human sperm are extremely compact, and they’ve been stripped of a normal cell’s protein-making machinery; but when cast into the forbidding environment of the female reproductive tract, they will learn on the job and change their search strategies and swim strokes as needed.

For Mother's Day, Angier wrote about the X Chromosome.

ABC News: "Gap Narrows Between Male, Female Births"

Via ABC News:

A new study has renewed the debate among public health experts over figures that seem to show a gradual but persistent decrease in the ratio between the birth of baby boys and baby girls.

The authors of the study, published in this week's edition of the online journal Environmental Health Perspectives, point out that the proportion of baby boys being born has fallen each year in the United States and Japan since the 1970s, according to public health records in both countries.

They say this downward trend may point to the impact of environmental pollutants on male fertility and fetal development — "a serious matter," the authors note in the study. Critics, however, say the decrease is only slight and could indicate any number of nonenvironmental factors.

N.Y. Times: "Baby Lust"

Recommended reading: this interesting article by Peggy Orenstein in today's New York Times Magazine.  Orenstein talks about the lengths, including subjecting themselves to medical experimentation, women will go to in order to conceive.  She contrasts this phenomenon with the attitudes of men, who don't seem to have the same impulse to become guinea pigs in the hopes of overcoming infertility.  Men also seem far more prone to deny, even in the face of evidence to the contrary, that they are the cause of a couple's failure to conceive.  These contrasting attitudes exist despite the fact that male and female infertility each account for about the same percentage of infertility cases.