Amicus: The IVF Decision We Should Have Seen Coming

It was a wild week at the High Court (another seven days crammed
with a year’s worth of news). SCOTUS heard cases about bump stocks,
and how Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito would do as Facebook
content moderators. The Supreme Court also finally found the time
to put a thumb on the scale for serially indicted alleged
insurrector-in-chief former President Donald J Trump. We’ll talk
about all those things with Slate’s very own Mark Joseph Stern. But
what we’re really focused on this week is the Alabama Supreme
Court’s recent decision finding that frozen embryos are children,
and the unshakeable sense that the coverage of this so far has had
a slightly myopic quality, as though this case is purely about IVF,
and carving out IVF, when in fact the entire movement for fetal
personhood sweeps in many more people and rights than just those
seeking assisted reproductive technology. We’re joined by a
preeminent expert on matters of law, medicine, reproductive health,
and biotechnologies, Dr. Michele Goodwin. Dr. Goodwin is the author
of  Policing The Womb: Invisible Women and The Criminalization
of Motherhood. She explains (again) why we should have seen
this decision coming from miles (and centuries) away.  Want
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access wherever you listen. Later, in the Slate Plus segment, Mark
returns to discuss this week’s SCOTUS arguments and the big news
that legislative turtle and legal hellscape architect Mitch
McConnell will be stepping down from his role as leader of
Republicans in the Senate later this year.  Sign up for Slate
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