A Missouri GOP Lawmaker, Who Runs a Construction Business, Weighs in on IVF

If this Missouri Senator has his way, embryos would be created one at a time and immediately implanted. He is also running without a Democratic opponent.

The Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos are children. Missouri legislators, not be outdone, are giving their own BS opinions.

Meet Rick Brattin. For starters, he has had some terrible ideas on abortion and rape. See below.

Believe it or not, he’s a sitting Republican Missouri State Senator. State Senators often fly under the radar, so you might not know him by name, or even by face, but I bet you’d be interested in some of his positions on abortion.

Senator Brattin said that forced pregnancy and birth can be “the greatest healing agent” for rape victims. Senator Brattin opposes abortion access for rape victims and incest survivors. Senator Brattin has made it his number one priority to make it harder for voters to overturn the abortion ban by trying to pass “IP reform” through the Senate.

Senator Brattin even introduced a bill back in 2014 that would have required a woman seeking an abortion to first get permission from the man responsible for the pregnancy.

Unfortunately, last week, we were forced to hear his opinion on IVF. I have to preface this statement by telling you that Rick Brattin is not a doctor, much less an expert in IVF or women’s health…Rick runs a construction business.

Here is a transcript of a news conference of Senator Brattin explaining his stance on IVF with his very flawed understanding of the procedure:

Reporter: …the frozen embryos as well, if they are considered life, where do we (Missouri) fall on that?

Brattin: It absolutely is and I think there does need to be a limitation in that. I mean, if you’re seeking IVF, and seeking that method to help to become pregnant, I think that was, that is, what exactly needs to be developed. Not a plethora of embryos, and then all of the sudden we throw them into storage like that. Um, I think that is, is the wrong in that approach. So…

Reporter: Do you think it should be illegal to store embryos, and do you think it should be illegal to discard them?

Brattin: I, uh, yeah, because of lot of time it is utilized you know for sort of research, developments, and of embryos and tossing away life. And the uh, the uh storage of them. Um yeah, I think it needs to be for that time. Again, I know it’s an expensive process, and could lead to failure. Um, but at the same time I think it’s really reckless to uh, to create all these embryos and to freeze.

This Senator thinks freezing embryos in the process of in vitro fertilization should not be legal in Missouri. He thinks embryos should be created one at a time and immediately implanted. One at a time. This Senator knows nothing of the IVF process and would bar Missourians struggling with becoming pregnant, from becoming parents. All in the name of being “pro-life.”

Rick Brattin’s fingerprints are all over the most extreme, controversial, harmful bills that seek to criminalize and punish women that our state has ever seen. But here’s the kicker: He could win his Senate seat in November by default–he currently has no Democratic opposition.

No one has yet filed to run against him. I mean, he does have a primary opponent who is as extreme as he, but not one Democratic opponent. Not yet.

And, friends, this goes back to the thing I always preach: we can’t vote in our self-interest when we give voters no choice. We can’t keep letting these seats go to Republicans who work for donors, not Missourians, by letting them go uncontested.

We can’t win when we don’t even compete and we all suffer under this extremism.

No seat uncontested.

~Jess