For fertility doctors, a moral question: Will they help protect IVF from abortion bans?

^{Photo by Stephen Andrews on Unsplash}

For most of her career, reproductive endocrinologist Dr. Stephanie Gustin and doctors like her have been told to set their politics, religion and beliefs aside when practicing medicine. They’ve rarely stepped into the abortion debate. 

The day Roe v. Wade was overturned changed that — likely forever. Since late June, fertility doctors have built coalitions and political committees and lobbied their state legislators, using their positions in a way they never have to serve as a bridge for conversations about reproductive health with politicians who support fertility care — but not abortion.  

“We are now realizing if we are not at the table then we are going to get written out of the story, and we are not going to be able to control the narrative,” said Gustin, who is the medical director at one of Nebraska’s two fertility clinics, the Heartland Center for Reproductive Medicine in Omaha. 

But as those conversations evolve, a difficult question is surfacing: Will fertility doctors be willing to work with anti-abortion legislators to protect in vitro fertilization (IVF), even if...