Republicans under scrutiny for supporting conception bill in wake of Alabama IVF ruling

Republicans who expressed support for in vitro fertilization in the wake of the controversial Alabama Supreme Court ruling are coming under scrutiny for also backing legislation that declares human life begins at conception, without an exception for IVF — two positions that appear to be at odds with one another, in the latest example of Republicans struggling to thread the needle on reproductive rights issues.

The Life at Conception Act – which was introduced in January 2023 by GOP Rep. Alex Mooney of West Virginia and has 125 total Republican sponsors in the House, including House Speaker Mike Johnson – defines the term “human being” to include “all stages of life, including the moment of fertilization, cloning, or other moment at which an individual member of the human species comes into being.”