Eigel, Ashcroft, & Kehoe Would Bring Alabama’s Extremism on IVF to Missouri

Eigel, Ashcroft, & Kehoe Would Bring Alabama’s Extremism on IVF to Missouri

After a bill was introduced in the Missouri state legislature to protect access to in vitro fertilization (IVF) and after the Alabama Supreme Court decision that attacks access to the treatment, Republican candidate for Missouri governor and state Senator Bill Eigel claimed “I have said this my entire life, that life begins at conception,” at direct odds with the use of IVF.

This isn’t shocking: Sen. Eigel has an extreme and dangerous track record of working to restrict Missourians’ reproductive freedoms, including his opposition to “carving out exceptions” for rape and incest in the state’s current abortion ban, claiming that “all life is precious.”

Just last month, Eigel criticized an amendment that aimed to help child rape and incest survivors 12 years old and younger get access to the care they need, bizarrely claiming “a 1-year-old could get an abortion under this.”

Eigel isn’t alone: his fellow Republican candidates, including Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft and Lieutenant Governor Mike Kehoe, also support the state’s near-total abortion ban that has no exceptions for rape and incest. Throughout their political careers, all three candidates have been endorsed by the far-right group, Missouri Right to Life, which firmly believes that life begins at conception. The Missouri Republican Party’s 2024 platform states that “life begins at conception,” making no carve-out for IVF treatment.

Ashcroft has used his role as secretary of state to mislead voters on an upcoming ballot initiative on reproductive rights, and even proposed ending majority rule to make it harder for Missourians to amend their constitution. Kehoe rallied with anti-choice activists to celebrate the fall of Roe v. Wade and Missouri’s extreme trigger law taking effect.

“Under Bill Eigel, Mike Kehoe, or Jay Ashcroft, Missourians’ right to start a family is under direct attack,” said DGA States Press Secretary Emma O’Brien. “These candidates can’t claim to support IVF while endorsing policies or organizations that directly undermine it. They can’t have it both ways, and we won’t let Missourians forget their dangerous positions or where they really stand.”

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