Christian conservative group opposes IVF for the most bizarre reason yet

The anti-LGBTQ+ group Family Research Council (FRC) opposes in vitro fertilization (IVF), a conception method responsible for roughly 2.3% of all infants born in the U.S. and often used by LGBTQ+ couples, because IVF clinics use pornography to get sperm from donors.

“Pornography is an integral part of the IVF process. And the husband’s use of pornography is typically how sperm was obtained. That’s not good for a marriage. We know that pornography goes against what God tells us about the dignity of men and women in a marriage,” said Mary Szoch, director of the FRC’s Center for Human Dignity (the FRC’s anti-abortion division), in a recent video.

Related:

A couple’s fight over frozen embryos could upend IVF access in Texas

The case is no doubt part of the predicted “domino effect” stemming from the Alabama Supreme Court’s ruling declaring embryos as legal children.

Married heterosexual couples who regularly view pornography report higher levels of relationship dissatisfaction and are more likely to get divorced, according to a 2020 study. However, the study couldn’t show which way the causation ran. That is, it’s not clear if porn causes relationship dissatisfaction or if dissatisfied partners are more likely to view porn.

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Of course, the FRC’s opposition to IVF is also shared by numerous Republican legislators who view fertilized embryos as living people and who view the discarding of such embryos as a form of murder. IVF, as it’s performed today, requires the creation of multiple fertilized embryos to increase the chances that at least one will lead to a pregnancy.

To date, three states — Missouri, Alabama, and Georgia — have laws that grant personhood to fertilized embryos. Arizona enacted a law granting those rights as well, but it’s currently blocked. A dozen other states have introduced legislation this year that would legally declare embryos as people.

IVF is also commonly used by same-sex couples to conceive children. As such, efforts to restrict IVF access particularly harm LGBTQ+ people who want to become parents.

Mary Szoch of the Family Research Council is really digging deep to rationalize the organization's opposition to IVF: "Pornography is an integral part of the IVF process … That's not good for a marriage." pic.twitter.com/DQKGr2sP5I

— Right Wing Watch (@RightWingWatch) May 22, 2024

While the FRC describes itself as a church and, previously, as an educational non-profit, it’s foremost an anti-LGBTQ+ and anti-abortion organization, designated a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. It was founded in 1981 by James Dobson, a longtime homophobe who also founded Focus on the Family (FOF), the largest theocratic-right organization in the United States.

Both FOF and FRC oppose same-sex marriage and sex education in schools (except “abstinence-only”), support so-called conversion therapy, and generally oppose anything that promotes the so-called “homosexual agenda” — even concepts of tolerance and diversity which, according to Dobson, are “buzzwords for homosexual advocacy.”

According to Dobson, the goals of this homosexual movement include “universal acceptance of the gay lifestyle, the discrediting of Scriptures that condemn homosexuality, muzzling of the clergy and Christian media, granting special privileges and rights in the law, overturning laws prohibiting pedophilia, indoctrination of children and future generations through public education, and securing all the legal benefits of marriage for any two or more people who claim to have homosexual tendencies.”

Peter Sprigg, FRC’s Senior Researcher for Policy Studies, says that same-sex sexuality should be legislated and declared illegal and that “criminal sanctions against homosexual behavior” should be enforced. He also argued that repealing the military’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy encourages the molestation of heterosexual service members.

Tony Perkins, president of the FRC, has argued that “homosexual men are more likely to abuse children than straight men.” He believes that the Bible commands Christians to kill gay people and has urged his followers to pray against any expansion of LGBTQ civil rights.

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