Mike Johnson Ducks Question Of Whether He Thinks Discarding Embryos Is Murder

For the second time, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) is ducking questions on whether or not he thinks IVF clinics discarding embryos are literally murdering kids.

During a Thursday interview on CBS, Johnson was requested how he reconciles his assist for in vitro fertilization if he believes that life begins at conception, which, by extension, would imply that he believes fertility facilities that get rid of embryos are killing folks.

“Do you see that as murder?” Tony Dokoupil of “CBS Mornings” requested Johnson.

“It’s something that we’ve got to grapple with,” Johnson replied. “We support the sanctity of life, of course. And we support IVF and the full access to it.”

The House speaker raved about how common IVF is. He stated he has mates who’ve efficiently used IVF. He stated Alabama, which final month modified its legal guidelines to outline a frozen embryo as a toddler, is a “good example” of a state making an attempt to guard entry to IVF whereas additionally curbing abortion rights. GOP leaders in Alabama unexpectedly handed a brand new legislation on Thursday to offer authorized immunity to fertility clinics, which had halted IVF therapies throughout the state out of worry of doubtless being sued for homicide for discarding embryos.

But Johnson by no means truly answered the query about whether or not he considers disposed embryos to be murdered kids.

When Dokoupil requested him to “clarify that point directly,” he nonetheless wouldn’t say.

“I think policymakers have to determine how to handle that,” stated the Louisiana Republican. “But we do believe in the sanctity of life, and if you do believe that life begins at conception, it’s a really important question to wrestle with. It’s not one Congress has dealt with, and it won’t be. I think it’s a state’s issue.”

Dokoupil tried yet another time, asking, “You don’t want to say where you are on it personally?”

“I think I have said. I mean, I believe in the sanctity of life,” Johnson replied. “Every life.”

The House speaker equally prevented answering this query final week, when a reporter on the Capitol requested him about it at his weekly press briefing.

“Look, I believe in the sanctity of every human life ― I always have ― and because of that I support IVF,” he stated.

Alabama’s determination to outline an embryo as a toddler has put House Republicans in a bind: Dozens of them, together with Johnson, are co-sponsors of laws to outline “human being” to incorporate “all stages of life, including the moment of fertilization.” Their invoice, the Life at Conception Act, doesn’t make exceptions for IVF.

In different phrases, Republicans have already been quietly advocating the concept an embryo is a toddler and that to destroy one can be akin to homicide. They simply weren’t anticipating the Alabama court docket determination to place IVF within the nationwide highlight, they usually don’t have a superb reply for a way they concurrently imagine that life begins at conception and likewise assist IVF.

The GOP has created this drawback for itself. And at the least one weak House member, Rep. Michelle Steel (R-Calif.), is clearly apprehensive this might damage her reelection possibilities in November.

On Thursday, Steel reportedly went onto the House ground and introduced she was eradicating herself as a co-sponsor of the Life at Conception Act due to “confusion” over its language about IVF.