I’m sure you’ve heard by now that the Alabama Supreme Court made a judgement this week that affected access to in vitro fertilization (IVF) across Alabama. As of today, three of the state’s largest healthcare organizations have suspended all IVF procedures post egg-retrieval to allow them time to further investigate the ramifications of this supreme court ruling. (My twins are IVF babies… perhaps you can hear my heart breaking from where you sit).
If you follow me on Instagram, you know my thoughts on this decision — and how deeply personal access to reproductive healthcare is to me (and my family). But what struck me, after I was moved to share my beliefs (and experiences) on social media, was the way the comments unfolded on my post and others.
I sat in my bedroom, holding my iPhone, watching the engagement on my post skyrocket in a mere number of minutes. And it wasn’t the content of the conversations happening in the comments that stirred something up in me, but the way these “strangers” (I’m assuming they didn’t know one another) were engaging with each other.