Why family advocates show decline by going after IVF
Why family advocates show decline by going after IVF
The new target for conservatives who have made the case for family are up in arms about a procedure to facilitate child-rearing.
Summary: Family values advocates who call themselves the vanguard of upholding tradition are showing their decline by coming out against the birth of children by in-vitro fertilization, a process that aids prospective parents straight or gay.
It doesn't happen a lot, but I was surprised this week when I discovered another sign of crumbling institutions in the Western world. That's because it came from the very group of people who purport to uphold traditional values and was evidence of their own decline.
Social conservatives with prominent influence in the online world revealed the dwindling capacity to stay consistent with their mission to preserve the family by going after Guy Benson and Dave Rubin, two prominent conservatives who happen to be gay, over news they were having children with their same-sex partners via the technological miracle of surrogacy through in-vitro fertilization, otherwise known as IVF.
You couldn't get a more stark disparity between the general reaction in the public compared to criticism from social conservatives. Guy Benson announced the birth of son, Conrad, just last week largely to great fanfare — and a warm welcome from Benson's home on Fox News. The newborn, however, was also welcomed into this week with snide comments online from naysayers objecting to mode of procreation and parentage.
We've really come to a new low when advocates for the family stoop to going after the birth of a child into a supportive family. These social conservatives, grounding their objections on the basis of superiority of procreation and child-rearing by biological parents, would likely reject the notion they've become anti-family. Others would point out they have a long history of anti-gay carves out to family values.
But in any event, these critics are taking a step down from the ladder when they're responding to the birth of specific child with vitriol. The vanguard of the venerable tradition of raising in a loving home and have done the virtual equivalent of spitting in the baby's crib.
I had a high-profile role on the frontlines of the gay rights movement as a reporter with an LGBT newspaper for 15 years, so I'm well acquainted with social conservatives who have sought to undermine gay rights, including the ultimate failure of these forces in their failure to stop milestones like the victory for same-sex marriage. Generally speaking, I believe the bad old days of anti-gay animus having a substantive impact on gay people, in particular their ability to lead fulfilling lives and establish families are behind us. But then something like this happens and I'm forced to reassess that view.
Gruesome imagery from Ben Zeisloft, editor of the Republic Sentinel and alumnus of the Daily Wire, describes the couples having children through in-vitro fertilization as “two men pretending to be married” who decide to “rip a child from their mother,” even though such a child wouldn’t have existed without the procedure and the mother wouldn’t have had it without an agreement to give it up. As commentator Richard Hanania puts it, these objectors have to mislead people with language implying the process is without consent to “make it sound like voluntary interactions involve people being forced to do things against their will.”
Others are using religious language about men and women being in the image of God and the process IVF reducing procreation to a financial transaction, utterly ignoring the process affirms the ability for parents to participate in the tradition of child birth and child rearing.
I was surprised by this reaction from conservatives on multiple levels. One way is the target of animosity two of their own. Guy Benson and Dave Rubin have been stalwart figures in the conservative movement. I know Guy Benson in particular has been outspoken against leftist support of abortion, which he has called out for rising to the level of fetishization. So basically social conservatives are cannibals going after their own for their decision to have a family.
The alignment of Guy Benson and Dave Rubin with the right has come to the chagrin of leftists, who says they're backstabbing their fellow gays by aligning themselves with those with a history of being against gay rights. I can just imagine left-aligned gays crowing that these two conservative commentators have reaped what they've sowed. At the same time, I'm sure those commentators would tell you they're just fine in their political homes and liberals have their own problems with hypocrisy.
The second way the objections baffle me is surrogacy via in-vitro fertilization is nowhere near the moral equivalency of abortion, and yet the case against in-vitro fertilization uses a lot of the same language. I don’t see it. One terminates a potential human life and rejects traditional religious sensibilities in fostering a family, the other facilitates the genesis of human life and affirms the importance of raising a child in a loving home. I always thought opponents of abortion have upheld giving a child up for adoption as the morally superior alternative, but now it seems like a mother giving a child she doesn't want to a welcoming home is unacceptable as well.
Finally, what strikes me as odd is in-vitro fertilization is not just an option for gay couples, but for other would-be parents having problems with conception. So by going against the procedure, social conservatives may be coming out against any number of their own in straight relationships seeking options in raising a family.
There seems to be an effort to make people uncomfortable with in-vitro fertilization by going into detail about the procedure. One objector posted a well-edited video that details the steps of the process, bemoaning human life engendered in a Petri dish and a birth mother being separated from her child upon its birth. It leans so heavily in the process that I have suspicions the video creators are trying to replicate the success of newfound hostility toward transgender people. Given general public aversion to the process of gender reassignment surgery, the people behind this video think they can duplicate the ick factor by going into the process by in-vitro fertilization.
I would predict the gamble would fall short. In-vitro fertilization is a procedure more people in the public can envision themselves having. So many people rely on medical procedures to facilitate something in their lives, including having kids. Whether you're using erectile dysfunction pills or drugs to facilitate fertility, many couples seeking to have kids resort to a little scientific hocus pocus. I would venture to guess the percentage of babies born to different-sex couples in marriage with no medical assistance whatsoever is far fewer than these objectors to in-vitro fertilization might think. Don't forget the medical assistance needed for a woman at a hospital when she comes to give birth, such as pain-reducing drugs.
I don't know how much impact these objectors to in-vitro fertilization will have. As I pointed out, that video posted by one of them against the procedure was well-edited and seemingly produced by professionals at significant cost. Someone out there is really trying to interfere with the way many gay couples have children. It's almost like they've realized fighting against same-sex marriage and adoption are losing issues, so opponents of these things are reframing the issue as in-vitro fertilization to make their arguments more palatable.
As strong as public support is for gay couples right now, I don't know where things will end up if a campaign against in-vitro fertilization continues. Thankfully, these objectors are facing a healthy amount of ridicule at these times, including from other conservative commentators, so optimistically that could nip things in the bud before they develop into a perverse renaissance of hostility toward gay people. In my opinion, that just makes it all the more important to offer congratulations to new parents like Guy Benson and Dave Rubin to demonstrate support vastly outweighs any opposition.