← Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey
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A
The Trump administration has launched an awesome initiative to help expectant moms. Unfortunately, there are parts of it that I just cannot get on board with. In fact, there are two things when it comes to life inside the womb that the Trump administration is doing right now that I'm very concerned about. We are going to get into all of this and more on today's episode of Relatable. It's brought to you by our friends at the Last Stand. It's going to be an epic pro life conference in Denver, Colorado, June 5th through 6th. I will be there. Frank Turk will be there. Seth Gruber so many more. More speakers. Go to the Last Stand.com if you use code Ally you'll get a discount on your ticket. The Last Stand.com code Ali. Hey guys, welcome to Relatable. Happy Wednesday. Hope everyone is having a wonderful week so far. Okay, a couple things that I want to say before we get into today's episode. Got quite the response to Monday's episode about this trend of going no contact or cutting off your parents. And the stories that I heard on both sides of this issue were heartbreaking for a lot of reasons. So on the one hand I got a lot of people saying that they have siblings, they have parents, they have children, they have cousins that have cut them off really for no good reason, because of a disagreement or because they just didn't like their tone. Very arbitrary surface level reasons. And in some cases it was just mysterious, someone super close to you, blood related, even cut you off, you have no contact with them, with their children for reasons that you may never know. And for that set of people, the episode that I put out really hit home and kind of helped them understand where this is coming from, why this has become a trend. The psychologizing of difficulties in relationships has made this worse. And then there was another set of people who really did not feel represented properly by my message message. And while I do feel like I put in caveats and some nuances there, I think that I could have been more clear and could have gotten to the point more quickly that there are reasons, could be good reasons to no longer have a relationship with someone that you have in your family. And that for many of you that decision did not come easily, it did not come because of politics, it did not come arbitrarily, but that it was actually a very difficult decision for you to make for the well being being of your family and the well being of your children. So I understand that and maybe I'll do a part two As I was listening back to it. I felt like I could have gotten to a resolution or a solution more quickly. I think I could have been a little bit more clear that, hey, there are actually abusive patterns of behaviors, whether it's physical abuse or. And we could get into this whole terminology, but true emotional abuse that could justify, for a season of time, no communication with a particular person. And then I also could have gotten to that, hey, here's what the Bible actually has to say about our parental relationships. It's not a covenant relationship. It is an obligation to honor our father and mother. But honoring father and mother and having a spirit of reconciliation and forgiveness is not the same thing as access. It's not the same thing as a physical presence with you or a physical presence is, especially with your children. And so I still think it's a very important episode for you to listen to and to watch. There were people who reached out to me and said that they have had these very, very troubling and traumatic relationships, and they found the episode to be accurate and helpful and all of that. We're always going to have a variety of opinions and a variety of perspectives, especially on a hot topic. But it is important for me to listen to you and to weigh the things that you have to say, especially those of you who are, to me, in a spirit of, you know, understanding and trying to help me understand. And so I think at the very least, that episode needs a part two. But everything that we said in there is true. And there is certainly this spirit of TikTok ification of our relationships that I do think is very damaging. And the mentality that we focused on, of, hey, I have to do what's best for me, even if it hurts my parents or even if it hurts this very important relationship. Relationship in my life is not the spirit of Christianity, but there could be good biblical reasons, unfortunately, why, why you have to have a cessation of a relationship for a period of time. So anyway, I just wanted to kind of say that because I know there was a lot of conversation on my social media and on YouTube about the different points that were made in that episode. If you haven't listened to it, if you haven't watched it yet, go back to it, give me your honest feedback and what you think about it. Try to make it through the entire thing, though, because we do try to give as many CA caveats as we can while still making a clear point about the importance of honoring our parents and maintaining those relationships. All right, one more thing. Get your Share the arrows tickets Share the arrows.com 10/10/The Arrows is brought to you by Range Leather. It's our Christian Women's conference. Shane and Shane will also be leading worship. It's going to be amazing. Cannot wait to see you there. The testimonials from the last two years have just been incredible. Such a blessing to me. Go to share the arrows.com for more information and to get your tickets. All right, now we are going to get into today's episode, which is also a controversial topic because we will be talking about IVF and the Trump administration. Some of the goods they have done on the pro life front that I as a pro lifer and very excited about. And then some of the things that Trump is very morally confused about and some efforts that the Trump administration has made that are simply not pro life. Not only when it comes to the pushing of the subsidizing of in vitro fertilization, which we'll get into, but also their stance on the abortion pill and how they have gotten in the way of pro life efforts to make it more difficult to access this murderous medication which is now responsible for the majority of abortion. So let's get into the good first and then we'll get into the complicated and we'll get into the straight up bad. So moms.gov is a good and new initiative by the Trump administration and it's a website that supports mothers and families. On Mother's Day. The White House launched this new website and they announced this and it helps expectant moms find nearby pregnancy care centers. You, you guys know that these pregnancy centers are near and dear to my heart. This is the majority of the speaking engagements that I do. I go to these pro life banquets and fundraisers where they invite me to just give a message of encouragement. But really it's an encouragement to me because I see how God is working through the mostly unseen and unsung work of these pregnancy centers, of these pro life Christians all across the and the deepest blue cities, in rural areas, in the south, in the north, everywhere. God is working through these pregnancy care centers to give women truth, to give them resources to connect them to believers and to lead them to the gospel. It's amazing what God is doing through these pregnancy centers. And I am so glad that the Trump administration is shining a light that. So moms.gov provides information and nutrition on nutrition and wellness for healthy pregnancies. They've got information like dietary guidelines, breastfeeding education, mental health support. And so you hear so much. Yeah, there it is. If you're watching moms.gov resources information help for new and expecting mothers. Love that so much. You hear so much from the pro abortion side. You guys only care about being pro birth. You guys are just trying to control women's bodies. You don't care at all about what happens to women and what happens to their babies after birth. First of all, that's always been untrue. That's always been untrue. If you are worried about women not having the resources that they need when they're in a crisis pregnanc situation, I better see you at your local pregnancy center. Most people complaining, oh, these women don't have the resources that they need. They're not showing up on Saturdays to help these women at the pregnancy centers get the baby supplies and the items that they need. They're not donating to their local pregnancy centers. Typically what pro choicers and pro aborts mean by that is in order to support these women, you have to outsource your compassion to the government. Typically what they mean exclusively is that the government needs to step in and expand these programs that so often are actually counterproductive and aren't actually helping moms have the resources that they need to survive. And by the way, government funded resources for those who are below the poverty line are already abundant. So it's typically just an excuse to be pro choice and be pro abortion. But look, we have right here, we have the Trump administration is giving the options available to women to make sure that they have the support that they need to choose life and to raise their babies. If the laugh were really about supporting women and they were really about moms and babies, it would have been the Biden administration who created moms.gov it would have been a Democrat led effort to make sure that moms have the resources that they need. But oh, it's the just pro birthers that are doing it now. The Biden administration leading the charge for, you know, taking care of women and their babies. They created their own website in 2022, reproductive rights.com that connected pregnant women to abortion providers such as Planned Parenthood. Their initiative provided answers for women and families dealing with unexpected pregnancies. That's what they said. Of course that's euphemistic. All they mean is that, hey, we want it to be easier for you to kill your child. So on the one hand, we've got Democrats saying your solution to your problems if you're in an unexpected pregnancy situation is to kill your baby. Here we'll make it as easy as possible to do that. On the Republican side, you've got the Republicans, the Trump administration saying, hey, we're going to help you figure this out. Like you will help you figure out the adoption process if that's what you want to do. We'll help you figure out parenting if that's what, what you want to do. We're going to connect you to life affirming resources. Okay, so when people say, oh, Republicans and Democrats, they're the same, they're equally evil. They're both pro life in their own way. One is pro death, like one is pro murder of your babies. And one is trying imperfectly by the way, but one is trying to make it, is make it more possible and make it more plausible for women to be able to choose life in 2022. You might remember that after the leak of the Dobbs decision, the Roe v. Wade reversal decision, pro abortion activists attacked more than 100 pregnancy centers across the country, including firebombings, arson, vandalism. We've got some pictures of that. It says if abortion isn't safe, their graffiti says, then neither are you. This is Jane's Revenge. They're a terrorist organization that tried to ruin these pregnancy centers, could have killed people if people had been inside. And just as a reminder, the Biden administration sentenced these perpetrators of Jane's Revenge to an average of 12 months in prison. While peaceful pro lifers like Joan Bell, 74 year old grandmother, she and others like her were sentenced to two plus years in prison. And so of course unequal weights and measures there you get rewarded if you are pro abortion by Democrats and you get punished if you are pro life by Democrats. So again, I just want to say that both sides are not the same. Moms.gov also highlights the pregnancy care centers and the specific work they are providing, like free ultrasounds, like parenting classes, they connect you to adopt adoption resources. They'll help you with Medicaid if that's something that, that you need. They provide free counseling. I have told many, many stories of the incredible testimonies of women who have walked into these pregnancy centers and their lives have been changed by the love and the help that they have received there. And so really the hate and the terrorism that pregnancy centers have received from the left, the lies that have been told about them in the media. You've got people like Elizabeth Warren. We did like a satirical video several years ago about Elizabeth Warren because Elizabeth Warren said she was going to go into these pregnancy centers and she was going to show what's really going on. And so I put my Elizabeth Warren wig On. And I went into a local pregnancy center to show you what's really going on. And, oh, no, they give free baby clothes away. Oh, no. They're offering free ultrasounds. Oh, no, they offer free pregnancy tests and prenatal vitamins. Oh, no, they're so kind in there. And they might tell you that Jesus loves you and that he died for you. Oh, no. They might become your friends. Oh, no. The evils that are happening there, it truly is spiritual warfare. And I am just. I'm really, really thankful that the Trump administration is taking this seriously and that they are shining a light on what these clinics are doing. These clinics have been through so much, especially after the overturning of Roe v. Wade, and more people need to know about them. And Christian, especially if you consider your pro choice. I mean, certainly if you consider yourself pro life, but if you consider yourself pro choice or holistically pro life, from womb to tumor, whatever, and you believe that it should be legal to kill babies inside the womb because you think that there aren't enough resources for moms, you've got no excuse to be sitting on your couch on Saturday morning. Get up, go to your local pregnancy center, you be a part of the solution. Or maybe search your heart and ask yourself, are you just looking for an excuse to be pro abortion? Are you just looking for an excuse to take the convenient position of being personally pro life, but legally against the right of babies to be protected from murder? Okay, that. That doesn't actually work, but. It doesn't actually work logically. But if you actually look inside yourself and see if there's any consistency there, maybe you can just be a part of the solution and you can take away that excuse for yourself. All right, we've got a very fitting sponsor before we get into the rest of this, and that is Seven Weeks Coffee. Seven Weeks is a Pro Life coffee company. The only Pro Life coffee company that I know of. In fact, their name is Seven Weeks Coffee, because at seven weeks gestation, that little baby inside the womb is the size of a coffee bean. Yet he or she is fully dignified and made in the image of God, and therefore, his or her life matters. And that is why 10 of every sale of 7 weeks coffee goes to a pregnancy center across the country. They've re. They've raised. I. I believe it's probably almost $2 million at this point for these pregnancy centers. Just amazing. They're really putting their money where their heart is. Plus, Seven Weeks Coffee is really good. It's great tasting, it's clean, it is better than organic, sustainably sourced, all of that good stuff. Mold free, pesticide free. We love it in our home. You can subscribe. You'll save 15 when you do that. Plus when you use my code Ali, you get an extra 10 off. So that's a 25 discount right there. 7 weeks coffee.com code Ali 7 weeks coffee.com code Ali. Okay, so that part of moms.gov is really great. Excited about that. We would have never gotten that with a Kamala Harris administration. The part of moms.gov and really just the the fight against the fertility crisis that the Trump administration is waging, the part of it that is really not good. And the reason that I can't say across the board, hey, if you're a part of a pregnancy clinic, you should be promoting moms.gov or we should be sharing this indiscriminately is because on moms.gov the administration is promoting in vitro fertilization.
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Here's hot3moms.gov is it is one stop shopping or IVF for prenatal care, for postnatal care, nutrition for baby formula and of course for Trump, our ex.
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Okay, so IVF is something that is going to be promoted on this website. The White House hosted that's what you're seeing there maternal health care event on Monday. Discussing the moms.gov launch, Trump announced that the Department of Labor has proposed a new rule that would create a new category of benefits to expand the ability of employers to offer fertility benefits to employees. So according to the maven clinic employer sponsored programs and services to support reproductive health benefits. Now typically reproductive health has meant abortion. That is the euphemism that pro abortion people use. So I'm already kind of not liking that terminology. Goes on to say they can include financial assistance for fertility treatments such as in vitro fertilization. I just want to say they just the euphemisms again, IVF is not a fertility treatment. Like it doesn't solve infertility. Actually it kind of tries to get around the issue, but it doesn't solve the underlying cause of infertility. Also says coverage for fertility medications and access to fertility specialists. Trump says that this is kind of like dental insurance too.
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This will be supplemental option available to those who need it, much like vision or dental insurance. So we're bringing it right down into the mainstream by offering coverage for care at every step. The fertility journey is very interesting one, very complex. It was and we're making it much simpler.
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So this is not exactly new. In October of 2025, the White House announced that a medication for IVF and other medications would be available at a discount through Trump Rx, the that's the government website that allows people to purchase drugs directly from manufacturers. So you bypass the middleman and you cut costs and so again, easier to have access to ivf. Trump has answered questions about this from the perspective of those who are critical of ivf. And he said, I think this is very pro life. You can't get more pro life than this. So what is my issue with this? If we're pro life, aren't we pro baby? Like, don't we want people to have more children? Don't we think that the fertility crisis is an issue? Yes, I love babies. I do want married moms and dads to have children. I do. I want you to have as many children as you possibly can as God is calling you to. And the fertility crisis certainly does worry me. There are a lot of practical problems with it. I think there are a lot of moral and spiritual problems that the choice to forego children points to. But there are, as we have talked about so many times in this podcast, many ethical considerations when it comes to in vitro fertilization. IVF almost always creates extra embryos that are stored, that are thrown away, that are frozen forever or used in experiments. Very often this is a eugenic type process where a couple will create more embryos than they could possibly transfer. So they might create a dozen embryos or sometimes it's only six embryos, but the couple really only wants, wants two or three children. But you make as many embryos as possible to get the best chance at a quote, unquote, healthy embryo as possible. What very often happens, and I'm listen, I'm saying caveats like very often, because I know some of you out there are going to say, no, that wasn't our process. But the vast majority of cases make as many embryos as you possibly can. Those embryos are then graded if there is any kind of chromosomal abnormality. So, for example, if it's found that one of the embryos has down syndrome, those embryos are discarded. Sometimes the couple doesn't even know that those embryos are being discarded, or it is. The embryos are tested for their gender, and very often the couple will have the gender makeup that they have in mind. For example, Paris Hilton made lots and lots of embryos and she just kept on making these boy embryos, but she really wanted a girl. And so of course she's going to bypass the eight other boy embryos that she has in a lab, that she has frozen until she gets the girl. So what happens to all of those embryos who are unwanted because they're the wrong gender, because they are. They have down syndrome or they have some kind of like trisomy 18 or 21? What happens to them? Well, typically they are thrown away. And morally for us, this is no different than abortion. Because we've been saying in the pro life movement for a very long time that Dr. Seuss line, a person is a person no matter how small. Of course we believe that. We have been saying that life starts at conception, that human life, scientifically this is not a spiritual argument, starts at the moment of fertilization. That is a unique human life. And all human life is made in God's image. All human life is therefore infinitely valuable. And therefore what we do to him or her from that moment of conception really matters. How we treat those who don't look to us like people, who don't sound to us like people who can contribute nothing, nothing. Even at the earliest moment of their humanity. It matters to the God who says that we are made in his image. Now, that is a spiritual argument, but I'm speaking to Christians, and it's okay for us to say that far more embryos are discarded every year than result in a life birth. In fact, only 7% of IVF cases actually lead to a live birth. There's this article that I found, and this is just a few years old from NBC talking about a fertility clinic in Fort Myers. In Fort Myers, Florida, hundreds of embryos sit in a frozen state of limbo. This is at one clinic abandoned in the center storage tanks by in vitro fertilization patients who once sought the help of Sweets. That's the doctor's team and their journey to become parents then walked away. Sweet is one of thousands of fertility doctors throughout the country grappling with what to do with the embryos cast aside by former patients, many of whom worked for months, even years to conceive. It's an unanticipated dilemma. 21%, this doctor says 21% of our embryos have been abandoned. So we're talking about at just one clinic, almost 1/4, almost a quarter of the embryos have been abandoned. There are, it's estimated, over a million. I bet it's closer to 2 million. But it's estimated that over a million embryos are on ice in America. There are all kinds of reasons for that. The parents end up getting the children that they want. They have two or three children. They can't bear to throw their other embryos away. And so those embryos just wait, just frozen on ice. Or sometimes there's divorce, there's relationship problems, sometimes the parents die. There are all kinds of unforeseen consequences to creating children outside of the sexual act, creating them in a labor, putting them on ice. And I know a lot of you out there, I've talked to you. You didn't intend that when you went through ivf, but now you've got six to seven embryos on ice and you're not sure what to do. And there is something called snowflake adoption where you could allow a Christian family to adopt these embryos. But at the very least, this situation puts you in a moral conundrum, in a moral quandary. It is very difficult, I think, to navigate this. And so for Christians, IVF should never be encouraged because right away we are asking the children to sacrifice and to risk on our behalf. Having children is a good desire, but it is not an ends justify all means desire. It is not a I'm going to do this at whatever cost desire. There are still moral and ethical parameters. And so the first part is how it treats embryos and the risk to the embryos and the risk of death, the risk of eugenics that goes on, especially if we're going to subsidize it and make it even more accessible to people. The embryonic death toll is just going to keep rising. I can't support that. I can't be a part of that. Even if sometimes there are happy results for people, it's not worth risking the lives of children. If I'm against abortion, I have to be against ivf. I do, I do do. Those two things just cannot go hand in hand. But then also IVF is used to create children for two men and two women. It is nas. It's a necessary step unless they are adopting. But to create a genetic child for two men or two women, you have to use either a sperm or an egg seller. In the men's case, you have to use a surrogate and they have to go through the embryonic grading process, the discarding of embryos, the transferring of embryos, and the risky to the baby and the woman surrogacy process, at least among two men in order to have a child. And so I am assuming that these subsidies and this program is also going to assist in helping surrogacy and helping IVF and the procurement of children to be forced into a motherless or fatherless situation by LGBTQ couples and I just cannot be be a part of that. I just cannot support that. I actually think that it's very evil that we are using our tax dollars to support motherless and fatherless children, forced motherless and fatherless children, and to pay for additional excess deaths of embryos via ivf. And so I'm very happy on the one hand, about what Trump is supporting when it comes to pregnancy centers, but I am very disappointed on the other hand, when it comes to the support of IVF and Katie Britt, who is standing behind him there, Republican senator from Alabama. Like, I think that she should know better. I don't really expect Trump to understand the moral intricacies of this issue, but I do expect a smart woman to know better. And it's not a lack of compassion for people who can't have children. It is a compassion for these small children who don't have a voice and who don't have any capital. They don't have people sticking up for them because people don't think you're a person unless you look like a fully developed baby. That's the battle we've been fighting when it comes to abortion. It's the battle we've got to fight when it comes to ivf, too. And I know that hurts feelings, and I don't want to hurt feelings. I'm not trying to be vitriolic or divisive or whatever, but all of those names that someone could call me, it's worth it for the sake of the babies. All night. It just is. All right, let me pause and tell you about our next sponsor for the day, and that is Legacy Box. Okay? All of those pictures, all of those VHS tapes, those home videos that you have or your mom has, your grandmother has in their attic, you've got to take care of that. You can't just let them collect us forever. You don't even know if you're going to be able to maintain their quality. And you don't want to lose all of those precious memories that you have from decades ago. Let Legacy Box help you. They'll send you an empty cardboard box, and you can fill it with all of these pictures, with all of these VHS tapes, even your home video DVDs, and they can digitize them and then make sure that you have them forever. Then you truly can pass down these memories and hang on to them. And you don't have to worry about what's going to happen when you move or a flood in the basement or any of that. They just make it as simple as possible. Go to legacybox.com Alli get 50% off. That's an incredible deal they've got going on right now with my link. That's legacy box.com Alli. Just another thing about IVF is that it doesn't actually help the fertility crisis. Katie Foust, she is the, she founded them Before Us, which is a child's rights organization. She said the places that have subsidized ivf IVF don't actually see an increase in birth rates. It simply means women further postpone childbearing rather than prioritizing it. This is not a solution to the fertility crisis, but it does result in massive loss of human life. She's absolutely right about that. If you look at Singapore, they've had a 40 year push of subsidized IVF. They subsidize up to 75% of reproductive technology costs. However, Singapore's fertility rate dropped to point 0.87 children per woman in 2025. If you look at that chart, it's actually gone down since they started subsidizing IVF because a lot of people, I'm not saying everyone, but a lot of people are going through IVF because they have waited sometimes by choice when they're in their 40s to have children. And that is past the window of your prime. That is past the window of when it is most likely to be able to, to have children. And that makes it difficult. That again is not solving the fertility crisis. There are root cause problems to the fertility crisis that we have been talking about for a long time on the show. You can go back and listen to some of those episodes again. IVF doesn't treat that, it doesn't solve that. We've got moral, spiritual issues going on. A lot of it is because men and women just aren't getting married. The vast majority of people are not getting married even by the time they're 30. So again, that fertility window just, just gets smaller and smaller. And the reason that they're not getting married, I think for a lot of people maybe they don't find the right person. But I also think it's just a lack of desire for commitment. Of course, as Christianity fades, which has been the driver of monogamy and fruitfulness in having children primarily for a very long time as that influence Waynes people's desire to sacrifice of themselves and get married and have children is going to wane. I know for a lot of you you are not child free by choice. You would love to have children. You are not marriage free by choice. You would love to get married, but I don't think that is true for a lot of the people who are not getting married and not having kids. And then when you turn 38, you finally decide you want to do these things, then it gets a lot harder. That is contributing to our fertility crisis. I think it has a lot to do with a matter of priorities and choices and morals than it has to do with some of these other factors. And it's certainly not going to be be solved by ivf. Of course we know what the Bible says about the value of life inside the womb. The same verses that we use to speak out against abortion as believers, as, as Christians is they're the same verses that we use to be against IVF. Jeremiah 1:5. Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. Before you were born, I consecrated you. I appointed you a prophet to the nations. He is talking to the prophet Jeremiah there. But it shows us a principle that God knows us when we are in the womb. Womb that our lives matter then. Psalm 139, 13, 14. For you formed my inward parts, you knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works. My soul knows it very well. And actually we didn't include the most important verse in that passage that your eyes saw my unformed substance. My unformed substance. So before I looked like a person. Person, when I was just what the left called a clump of cells, you saw me, you formed me, you were knitting me. And then, of course, Exodus 20:13, you shall not murder. And I do believe that discarding embryos is murder. And I do believe that allowing your children, who are your children, those embryos to be indefinitely frozen on ice is not a way to treat a child. Child. I think we have to have a much more biblical but just a much more moral and, and human look on IVF and not only prioritize adult desires, but also what are children's rights? All right, we've got another bad that we have to talk about when it comes to the state of abortion in America and what the Trump administration is doing that is not good on this when it comes to the abortion pill. All right, let me pause and tell you about another fitting sponsor. And that is is Every Life. I'm so thankful for Every Life. They are a pro life diaper company. We use Every Life diaper diapers and wipes in our home and they work really well. And a lot of you have given me rave reviews and you're so glad that you switched and I'm so glad to hear that. We have been using them for the past several years and they're super effective. I love that everything is super clean materials. They also have this really cute made in the USA belt bag that I use whenever I'm little a on walks. They have all different kinds of varieties and so they're selling all kinds of awesome pro life things and they are supporting moms and babies through their Buy for a Cause bundle that you can purchase on their website supporting pregnancy centers. Go to everylife.com use code ALI10. You'll get 10% off your first order today. Everylife.com code ALI10. So unfortunately, the state of abortion in America is not good. Abortion has only increased since the Dobbs decision, the overturning of Roe v. Wade. The vast majority of the abortions that are occurring are happening in those first few weeks of pregnancy and that is because of the rise in the prevalence of the abortion pill under the Biden administration. A few years ago, they removed the rule that said that you had to see a doctor or abortion provider in person before you could take the abortion pill. It's a two part abortion pill, misopristol and mifeprop Pristone. And you would go home after confirming how far along you were and take these, and take these pills to abort your child, which of course is awful. But at least when you see a doctor, there is a safeguard in place to know actually how far along you are and if it's going to be safe. While the Biden administration, after the Dobbs decision allowed states to pass more pro life laws, wanted to make it as easy as possible for women in Texas and these, these more pro life states to be able to skirt those laws and to still be able to murder their babies no matter how far along they were. And so now you go online and you order these abortion pills and you can kill your child and it's very detrimental as well to, to the woman. And unfortunately, the Trump administration has not reversed that rule. The Trump administration is over the FDA and they have decided to actually push back against the states like Louisiana, like Texas, like Florida, who are trying very hard to ensure that, that, that that rule that the FDA has in place is reversed so that these women have to see a doctor and have to confirm how far along they are in their pregnancy before they can get the abortion pill. And of course we want the abortion pill off the market. We don't want it to be sold at all. But you definitely should not have have should not be able to sell it online. And unfortunately, because of this, because of the prevalence of the abortion pill, we have seen, we have this, according to the Guttmacher Institute, that's Planned Parenthood, Planned Parenthood's research arm. You can see that over the past couple of years, this chart shows that abortion actually has risen. Now, it was rising before that. It looks like it was rising about 2015 started rising, rising, rising, and then it's just continued to rise. It's actually plateaued over the past year or so. And so lots of reasons for that, but certainly the circulation of the abortion pill and now the mail order abortions made possible first by the Biden administration, but continued to be allowed by the Trump administration for reasons we do not fully understand, that is probably the reason for that increase there. Today we are talking to Dr. Christina Fran Francis, and she is an OB GYN of, I think, almost 20 years now. She is awesome. I have known her for a while. She is the head of applog, and that is the American association of Pro Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists. She's going to tell us about, unfortunately, where the Trump administration has failed when it comes to this, but also what she did to go undercover to show show us just how easy it is to legally get abortion pills sent to your house without parental consent, even if you are as young as 13. So she's going to fill us in on exactly what all of this means, why this matters, and what we can do as pro lifers to push this administration in the right direction. That is one silver lining. I do think this administration can be pushed in the right direction, unlike the Kamala Harris Harris administration. So we've got to do what we can to raise a respectful ruckus for the things that matter. All right, without further ado, here is Dr. Francis. Doctor Francis, thanks so much for taking the time to join us. Okay, tell us about this ruling by the Fifth Circuit of Appeals that has to do with mifepristone.
- [38:04]
C
Yes. Well, Ally, thank you for having me back on again. It's so great to be with you. Yeah. On May 1, we were really excited to hear the ruling from the Fifth Circuit that while this case out of Louisiana over mifepristone is working its way through the court that the in person dispensing requirement for mifepristone, the abortion drug, should be put back into place immediately because of the harm of it not being there, because of the harm that that's causing to states like Louisiana and also to women. Like Rosalie Marriage Markesic, who's one of the co plaintiffs in this case, who was coerced into a chemical abortion by her boyfriend who was able to order these drugs online, get them mailed to him, and then sat in the car with her and really it sounds like verbally threatened her. She was afraid of physical harm if she didn't take these drugs and so was forced into an abortion that ended the life of her child. And and so thankfully, the fifth Circuit recognized that this is a real active danger to state pro life laws, but also to individual women who are being harmed and of course preborn children who are being harmed by these drugs. And so the 5th Circuit said, while this case is making its way through the court, we need that in person dispensing requirement back immediately.
- [39:24]
A
Right, right. But then what happened at the Supreme Court?
- [39:28]
C
Yes, well, so keeping in mind, I am not an attorney, but I have lots of friends who are and they have given the wording to recap this. So what happened was then that 5th Circuit decision was immediately appealed to the Supreme Court by the abortion drug manufacturers. So Danko and GenBioPro, whose sole financial product I know for Dan Co. But I believe for GenBio Pro as well, is the abortion drug mifepristone. So they immediately appealed to the Supreme Court. And then earlier this week, Justice Alito became because he makes decisions on any appeals that come through the fifth Circuit. Justice Alito just said we're going to put a pause for a few days on what the 5th Circuit said and we want to hear from all of the parties involved. We want to get briefs from all of the parties involved. And then it seems like because the Supreme Court stay on the fifth Circuit's decision is set to go through this coming Monday, May 11, it seems that they just want to hear all the information and then the Supreme Court will actually rule as to whether the 5th Circuit decision can stand.
- [40:36]
A
And tell me why it is so important to require this in person visit. Obviously, we don't want any babies to be killed with the abortion pill at all. But this in person visit requirements is a really important not only deterrent possibly, but also just to preserve the safety of the women who are seeking to use this abortion pill. Right?
- [41:01]
C
Yes, absolutely. So we know at its baseline this abortion drug mifepristone is inherently dangerous. It's four times more dangerous than surgical abortions. But that's when it's being dispensed in person. When a woman has an in person evaluation by a medical professional who ensures they know how Far along she, she is in her pregnancy, ensures that she does not have an ectopic pregnancy which is life threatening to her, and ensures that she is actually the one who wants the abortion, that it's not someone forcing her into that. You know, if we take sort of a 30,000 foot view, one of the reasons that this in person dispensing requirement is important is because without it, abortion is essentially legal in all 50 states right now. This is a federal mandate that is open, overriding all state pro life laws right now. In fact, the state of Louisiana, the main plaintiff in this case, has documented that they, even though abortion is illegal, a thousand abortions a month are happening in just the state of Louisiana because of these drugs. So on a macro level, in order to respect state pro life laws, this in person dispensing requirement needs to be put back into place. But on an individual level, as you said, women getting these drugs through the mail is extremely dangerous without that evaluation. We know that for every week beyond really about eight weeks of pregnancy, that a woman takes these drugs, her risks increase exponentially of hemorrhage or massive bleeding, infection, the need for emergency surgery, and even just a few weeks can make a huge difference. So at 10 weeks of pregnancy, her risk of needing a surgical completion of, of her abortion is about 1 in 10. If she takes them just three weeks later, at 13 weeks of pregnancy, that jumps to 1 in 3. So that's a really significant difference in her risk. And we know even the American College of obgyn, who's very pro abortion and by the way filed an amicus brief in this case going, siding with the abortion industry. But even they say that up to 50% of women will, will be wrong about how far along they are in their pregnancy just based on, you know, going off of their last period without an ultrasound, without an in person exam. And of course Rosalie's story and many others like hers highlight the fact that abusers are getting these drugs online, men are getting these drugs who obviously are not pregnant, and they're forcing them on their wives, on their girlfriends. And so, you know, I think even somebody who may say that they support a woman's quote, unquote right to an abortion should certainly be opposed to abortion being forced on a woman that doesn't want them or doesn't want an abortion. And then finally, as you said, we know that the reinstatement of this in person dispensing requirement would also lead to saving more lives of preborn children. We would see the abortion numbers go down, which we have seen going go up significantly since the Dobbs decision. In particular because of the lack of an in person dispensing requirement.
- [44:07]
A
Quick pause from that conversation to tell you about good ranchers, y'. All. Good ranchers will make your meal prepping journey so much easier because you'll always have a freezer full of a wide variety of all American meats that you can access at any time time. That's what we do. We love good ranchers. Last night we had people over and I made bacon wrapped chicken breasts with like cream cheese in the middle. It was really good. The bacon was from Good ranchers. The chicken was from good Ranchers. Everyone ate it. Even the kids ate it, y'. All. We rely on good ranchers to have the protein that we need at every meal and it just makes our life so much easier. All I had to do was take out the bags of chicken in the morning, make sure they were thawed. Everything is good to go. I don't have to go to the grocery store and pick out meat and wonder where it's from. I can get all of my meat from an America loving, godly, family owned America First Meat Company. Good Ranchers. Go to good ranchers.com use code ally and you'll get $40 off your first order. That's good ranchers.com code alley if you think about in a non, in non abortion terms, everyone knows that it's easier to spend money when you buy something on Amazon versus going in person. Like if you have to go buy something in person and try it on or buy a piece of furniture in person. Most people aren't going to do it. They're going to think twice about it. And then they go in person and they think, well you know what, I don't even know if I, if I want to go through with this. I don't know if they have the money for it. I don't know if I have the space for it. There are all kinds of things that you think about when you're in person that you don't think about when you're just clicking a couple times online. Well, I think you multiply that when it comes to abortion. Especially if you have a woman who is pressured, especially if you have someone in a crisis situation, really easy to make that click to take those pills, not even know how far along you are. And of course, as you said, I think it just exacerbates trafficking, abuse, all kinds of things. Now I'm seeing that the CEO of Reproductive Freedom for all obviously euphemism for abortion. She is saying that some abortion providers are saying that they might use. Is it misoprostol? Is that how you pronounce it?
- [46:22]
C
Misoprostol?
- [46:23]
A
Misoprostol. That they might be using that by itself without using mifepristone. If mifepristone is not available, that also is very dangerous for women, right?
- [46:34]
C
It is, it is. And this is not something new. It's something that the abortion industry has done internationally for many, many years. Is misoprostol only abortions. One of the reasons why mifepristone was developed was because of the incomplete abortion rate or where all of the baby and all of the pregnancy tissues don't pass out of the woman's uterus. That rate for misoprostol alone abortions is significantly higher than when you add mifepristone. So it is more dangerous to women. It will lead to more complications. And I think the fact that the abortion industry is already pivoting to that shows that all they care about are more abortions. They couldn't care less about women's health and women's safety. They obviously don't care about the health and safety of preborn children. And I think this, they really have shown their hand in this, in that they care about their profits, they don't care about patients, which is exactly the, the opposite of what healthcare is meant to be and to do. And Ali, if I can just return real quickly too to something that you mentioned right before, that in that, you know, we, we think a little less when we go on Amazon, for instance, to buy something online, I want to highlight the fact because I think that there's a lot of people even on the pro life side that don't fully understand this, that when women or whomever is going online to buy these pills to be shipped through the mail to them, it truly is like an Amazon experience. So oftentimes they're called telehealth or telemedicine abortions. But telehealth or telemedicine means a patient is talking to a medical professional through like a zoom call. That is not what's happening on these websites. And in fact Applog put out an expose video recently where I got online onto one of these sites and I put in every medical reason why someone should not not be given these pills. Things that make them very much life threatening in the end. I was a 13 year old with three previous C sections and IUD in place on blood thinners in the state of Indiana where abortion is illegal. And after I submitted my request, which they said would be reviewed by a healthcare professional before I received the payment link, within a minute and a half I got the payment link. So obviously no medical professional is reviewing this. And in two days they were in my mailbox in the state of Indiana. And it should be noted that the pills came from, or the pills were pills that were made by GenBioPro, who is one of the abortion drug companies involved in this lawsuit. And they came from a random address in Los Angeles, California. So I legitimately as a 13 year old could have died had I taken those pills and actually been pregnant. So I, I think it's really, really important. One of my big things that I'm trying to convince people of is don't call these telehealth or telemedicine abortions. They are not. There is no health care whatsoever involved, there's no medical oversight. These truly are mail order abortions, like a shopping, online shopping experience. That is all that's happening. Women are not getting informed consent and they're having no medical oversight whatsoever.
- [49:38]
A
Would it be accurate to say that abortion is more accessible than ever because of that?
- [49:43]
C
This, oh, 100%. And this was, this was the abortion industry's plan all along. They saw the overturn of Roe coming. They started laying the groundwork for this all the way back in 2000 when this drug was originally approved in the U.S. their goal was to always make it accessible like this and ultimately to make it over the counter, which is their next move. Now I would argue it's essentially over the counter right now, the way it's available online. But there are already studies coming out in major medical journals from abortionists about why it would be safe for this to be dispensed over the counter. That is ultimately their goal, that every person who wants to get their hands on abortion drugs will be able to do so with no medical evaluation, no follow up, and just abandoning women to their local emergency rooms and obviously ending the lives of hundreds of thousands of, of preborn children in this country every year.
- [50:37]
A
And by the way, no parental knowledge. I mean, forget about consent. You were a 13 year old in your undercover operation and the parents didn't have to sign off or say anything. And so like your little girl, I mean your, your teenage daughter could walk into. Their plan is to walk into a cvs, potentially die, not to mention her child died gruesomely because of this. Now we know that this comes from a Biden era FDA rule that said you don't have to have this in person requirement. But the Trump administration FDA has not done what we need them to do, correct in reversing this rule?
- [51:16]
C
No, they haven't. In fact, it's been a huge disappointment that not only because this is an administration who claims to be the most pro life administration in history, but also because it just is good medicine and good science to reverse the Biden era decision to remove that in person dispensing requirement. And in fact, the Trump DOJ and FDA are actively fighting the state of Louisiana in this lawsuit and asking for it to be dismissed while they do their, their supposed safety review that they've supposedly been doing doing since last year. It should have been done by now. And many groups like applog, the group that I represent, have been demanding to see results and see results soon of this safety review and for full transparency of what data they used in their safety review. They have claimed that the in person dispensing requirement should not be put back into place while this safety review is being done. There is no medical or scientific reason reason why they couldn't simultaneously put back into place the pre2023 in person dispensing requirement and continue to do their safety review. And I think most disappointingly for me recently there was an article in the Wall Street Journal that had a quote from FDA Commissioner Marty Makary who said essentially that he doesn't even really think about abortion pills. That was a punch in the gut for me because you know, again, even if it's not somebody who claims to be Pro Life, the FDA's job is to ensure that any drug that is approved in the United States is safe for people to take and is being dispensed in a safe way. And that is not what's happening with mifepristone.
- [53:00]
A
I've had Dr. McCary on the show appreciate, you know, some of the things that he did in Covid. But as you said, this is not only a, a moral issue, obviously, but this is a health issue. And this is something the hhs, the FDA is supposed to really care about, care about also has environmental impacts too, RFK Jr. So there's a lot going on here. Thank you so much. I am so thankful for you, Dr. Francis, and for Applog, all the advocacy that you guys do. You might not be an attorney, but you did an excellent job at explaining what's going on in the court. So thank you so much, Dr. Francis. Encourage everyone to check out Applog, that's AAPLOG, see what they're up to, see how you can support them. Thank you so much.
- [53:39]
C
Absolutely. Thank you, Beth.
- [53:46]
A
All right, we only have a few minutes left, but I wanted to save some time for some lifestyle pitter patter, mostly just because I like seeing the image of Hillary Clinton and me cooking together. So we're going to talk about the Odyssey in just a second. Let me pause and tell you about our next sponsor, our last sponsor for the day and that is Concerned Women for America. Concerned Women for America is America's largest Christian public policy organization. They recently released a report showing that 41 of Netflix is G rated. G rated and children friendly. Content contains LGBTQ themes, storylines, characters. And so they have urged the Federal Communications Commission to address a rating system that hasn't been updated since the 1990s, has operated without meaningful input from parents. And so they're just looking for more transparency for those of us who don't want to push those themes on our kids. Kids, like, we should have some indication that, hey, if it's G rated, like, we need to be able to assume that it's not going to be LGBTQ or just give us a separate reading or something just a little bit more clarity on what is actually going to be promoted to our kids. Or you could just not show your kids anything made after like 2015. But for other parents, we want transparency. And CWA is a part of of FCC issuing a public notice to that is now going to seek to get input from the public. So participate before the May 22 deadline. Go to concerned women.org ally be a part of this. Sign their petition. Concerned women.org ally. Okay, there's Hillary and me. I wonder what we're making. We're probably making like, I don't know, sourdough bread or something like that. Okay, lifestyle pitter patter for you. We're going to talk about the Odyssey now. People are really excited or they were really excited about the Odyssey, the movie that's supposed to come out in July, directed by Christopher Nolan. This is the person who is very famous for directing things like Interstellar, Oppenheimer. So he's got a good repertoire of work. But people are very disappointed by this because it's, it doesn't seem at all like he is trying to match the characters of the Odyssey and how they were described in the book to the actors and actresses that he chose for this movie. So, for example, we have got Helen of Troy. Helen of Troy is reportedly being played by Lupita Nyong'. Okay, Very, very beautiful woman. Nothing against her. She's probably a wonderful actress. The problem here is that this seems to be blackwashing a character who clearly was supposed to be white and blonde. She is described by Homer as white, armed, emphasizing pale, smooth arms, fair haired, so blonde. And the person who played her in Troy, this was in the early 2000s, looked like that. You know, she had blonde hair, blue eyes, was fair skinned. And so it seemed like they were trying to match how Homer actually described Helen, the face that launched a thousand ships. And then we've got Achilles. Achilles is being played by Juno. Okay, being played. You can't even tell who that is right there. But that is Ellen Page, who now goes by Elliot Page, who is a very sad story of someone who thinks that she is a man. And then we think we're, we think from the trailer that, that she is playing Achilles. Now Homer describes Achilles as the ideal heroic warrior, youthful, powerful, imposing. Now you'll remember that Brad Pitt, maybe you'll remember this, played achilles in the 2004 iteration of Troy. That is probably what we picture when we are reading the description of him and the Iliad, for example. Like he has light gold, golden fair hair. So probably like Brad Pitt. I just am not picturing 5 to Ellen Page as playing Achilles. But we'll see. Also we'll see if that's actually true, if it's actually Achilles. But I can't imagine it being a good casting if she is playing a man at all. Rapper Travis Scott, okay, is playing a bard and I don't know if he has any acting experience. Maybe he has a ton of acting chops and he's like gonna be awesome at this. I don't know this, this like Hamiltonification of history. Now we're just doing this. I actually really enjoyed Hamilton, like musically I thought it was really good and creative and fun. I still listen to it. But now we're just doing this to every piece of literature and history. So. Christopher Nolan defended this decision of casting Travis Scott, stating, I cast him because I wanted to nod towards the idea that this story has been handed down as oral poetry which is analogous to, to rap. Okay, that's a choice. That is certainly a choice. And then apparently there's modern language used in this book. 7. You're pining for a daddy you didn't even know. Like some sniffling past. My dad is coming home weird. Just a little weird. I mean, I guess they always use modern language because you're. They're probably not doing just exactly the lines from the original books, but they're trying to Gen Z ify it with the like daddy language. Okay. And Then people are also pointing out Anne Hathaway, who is an incredible actress, by the way. I. I know there's a lot of Anne Hathaway hate out there. She's an incredible actress. She was so good in Les Mis, y'.
- [59:29]
C
All.
- [59:29]
A
But anyway, they're talking about how she obviously has Botox and so she came can't express her face in the same way. This has been a topic of conversation a lot on Movie X and how the Botox and the fillers and everything is actually changing acting and is changing the sincerity, the genuineness of. Of these portrayals that are supposed to be historic when obviously these things didn't exist. You know where I first noticed this in. Was it. Is it 1884? Is that the, Is that the follow up to Yellowstone, the one with the girl and the Tim McGraw and the Faith Hill? I think it's 1884. Anyway, I enjoyed it. I thought that Tim McGraw and Faith Hill did great. But Faith Hill, as beautiful as she is, she looks like a very modern woman. I'll say that she is a product of our times. And I had a very hard time placing her like on the trail in the 19th century because of how she looks. And that's just unfortunate. Also, you just can't show your emotions if you can't move your eyebrows. And I think that's very important for acting. It's okay to age, Anne Hathaway. It really is. I don't know, maybe there are some weird people who don't think it is, but I think it's okay to age. And I love acting. Like, I love acting and I love watching great acting. And it actually makes me really, really sad that all of these incred incredible performers, that their face is frozen permanently and that they can't do their jobs well. And therefore we're not served well. And so here you go. The patriarchy is winning again because only the men are going to be able to express their emotions well. And they're going to be better actors than you. Are you going to let them win, Anne Hathaway? Don't get Botox next time. Skip your next appointment. Let us see the disappointment in your eyebrows. All right, that's all I got time for today. I will be back here on of top Friday.