Personhood, Politics, Assisted Reproduction, and the Law Post-Dobbs

With the end of the federal constitutional right to abortion, state legislatures and state courts have become far more important in the sphere of reproductive rights. Before Dobbs, anti-abortion advocates had significant (albeit increasingly porous) ceilings on what they could prohibit in relation to reproductive health care. A significant check on those actions is now gone. In the wake of Dobbs, societal debates about personhood have increased and expanded in terms of their practical implications. Before Dobbs, anti-abortion advocates admitted that Roe and subsequent cases limited the scope of their arguments, especially in relation to the legality of in vitro fertilization. That limit is gone. In the aftermath, many supporters of the right to an abortion saw the need to affirmatively express their support of the right to an abortion, leading to a sharp increase in participation in state and local elections. As indicated by the bipartisan reactions to the Alabama Supreme Court decision in LePage v. Center for Reproductive Medicine P.C., post-Dobbs, assisted reproduction is in danger of illegalization as efforts to move personhood closer to conception, in the targeting of abortion, now impact assisted reproduction, especially in vitro fertilization. As a result, legislators of both parties should continue to enact legislation that protects assisted reproduction in the United States and eventually subsidize access to it.