adding to the topic RFK Jr has his VP picked and is not Aaron Rodgers after all, Nicole Shanahan and questions IVF.
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/03/28/robert-f-kennedy-vice-president-nicole-shanahan-ivf-00149523
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s running mate has been a harsh critic of in vitro fertilization, while funding alternative research on extending womens reproductive years.
Nicole Shanahan has for years denounced IVF calling it one of the biggest lies thats being told about womens health today.
At the same time, she has also been a vocal proponent of and financial backer for unconventional research into the possibility of helping women having children into their 50s and exploring no-cost interventions to help women conceive, such as exposure to sunlight.
Im not sure that there has been a really thorough mitochondrial respiration study on the effects of two hours of morning sunlight on reproductive health. I would love to fund something like that, Shanahan said to a 2023 panel with the National Academy of Medicine, a group to which she had previously donated $100 million.
The statement was met with chuckles, Yeah, lets do it, she added. I just have an intuition that could be interesting and maybe work.
As a candidate, her criticisms of IVF have taken on heightened importance following an Alabama Supreme Courts ruling that embryos are children, which briefly forced clinics in the states to pause operations. Republicans and Democrats including both President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump rushed to defend the procedure, which is broadly popular.
The 38-year-olds opposition to IVF and skepticism of the fertility industry makes her an outlier in the presidential field though she has not called for banning the procedure.
Kennedy has not weighed in on IVF access, and has made conflicting comments about abortion access. At the Iowa State Fair, Kennedy, 70, said he supported a ban on abortion after 15 or 21 weeks of pregnancy, but then his campaign said he misunderstood the question and does not support such a ban.
In multiple interviews, Shanahan has been public about how she feels about the IVF industry, including one as recently as this February.
It became abundantly clear that we just dont have enough science for the things that we are telling and selling women, Shanahan told the Australian Financial Review. Its one of the biggest lies thats being told about womens health today, she said.
And in a personal essay for People Magazine in 2022, in which she detailed her split from her ex-husband and Google co-founder Sergey Brin, she said, I believe IVF is sold irresponsibly, and in my own experience with natural childbirth has led me to understand that the fertility industry is deeply flawed.