Democrats invite women impacted by abortion and IVF rulings to Biden’s State of the Union

WASHINGTON — Democrats are putting reproductive rights front and center at the State of the Union Thursday night, inviting guests impacted by the Supreme Court’s reversal of federal abortion protections and Alabama’s controversial court ruling on in vitro fertilization last month.

Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., will bring with him the nation’s first IVF baby, Elizabeth Carr, who was born in 1981. “I was aware of her story after the Alabama decision,” Kaine told NBC News on Wednesday. “I saw an interview first where she said, ‘I feel like an endangered species.’ And that made me say let’s reach out and see if she’ll come to the State of Union. And I’m very, very glad she is.”

House Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., has invited Jodi Hicks, the CEO of Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California, as his guest. Connecticut Rep. Katherine Clark, the current Democratic whip, is bringing a Texas woman, Amanda Zurawski, who was denied an urgently-needed abortion care in Texas. California Rep. Judy Chu will be joined by Dr. Caitlin Bernard, an OBGYN who came under fire for speaking out about providing an abortion to a 10-year-old girl who was raped.

And a trio of Senate Democratic women, Minnesota’s Tina Smith, Tammy Duckworth of Illinois and Senate President Pro Tempore Patty Murray of Washington also invited women directly impacted by the landscape of patchwork reproductive laws across the country.