A senior embryologist at West Coast Fertility Centers, in Fountain Valley, California, adds media to petri dishes containing embryos before freezing them, on February 29, 2024.
“As a trans person, I’ve definitely thought about if I want to potentially freeze eggs,” said Zephyr Scalzetti, a senior digital organizer with Alabama Values Progress. “It’s not something that was in the cards over the next few years, but it was definitely something on my mind, and now that’s a hard no. You don’t even want to chance it.”
The majority of people who use IVF are straight couples, but queer people are likely to be disproportionately affected if IVF treatments become inaccessible. With fewer options for having children than straight couples, queer people often depend on IVF treatments if they want to raise a family. “I’m really alarmed by the possibility of white women weaponizing their infertility against Black folks and systems like and Child Protective Services having to double down on separating Black babies from their families to assist folks becoming parents,” Fountain said.. In 2020, an unauthorized hospital patient entered the area where the embryos were stored, picked them up, dropped them, and destroyed them.