Shattered Dreams: The High Cost of Reproductive Technology

Bioethics, , ,

A column published in The Wall Street Journal last Friday highlights the heartbreak and empty promises that assisted reproduction technology often brings.

Ruthie Ackerman writes,

I spent close to $15,000 to freeze my eggs when I was 35. I paid top dollar out of pocket at a well-respected clinic that had, as far as I knew, glowing statistics. The process allowed me to bank 14 eggs, a number my doctor enthusiastically told me could produce two children.

Yet when I returned to use my eggs six years later, none was viable. Only eight survived the thaw, and only three became embryos after being fertilized. I then waited to see if any would reach the blastocyst stage necessary for pregnancy.

None of them did.

Ackerman goes on to note how egg freezing simply isn’t the “slam dunk” or parenthood “insurance policy” that many people make it out to be. Egg freezing and in vitro fertilization can cost tens of thousands of dollars, and there is no guarantee that the eggs — or the unborn children created from them — will survive.

We have written before about the ethical problems with human egg harvesting, in vitro fertilization, commercial surrogacy, and other assisted reproductive technologies. Fertility clinics often fail to give women all the information about the risks, consequences, and alternatives associated with these processes.

Two bills filed earlier this year would have helped address this problem.

H.B. 1554 and H.B. 1795 by Rep. Alyssa Brown (R — Heber Springs) would have required fertility clinics to be licensed by the State of Arkansas and report key data related to assisted reproductive technology. Unfortunately, neither of these bills passed.

Family Council has worked for years to bring better accountability and oversight to assisted reproduction technology. We remain committed to doing exactly that.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

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Liberal Groups Challenge State Ballot Initiative Laws

Legislation,

Recently, liberal organizations filed multiple complaints in federal court challenging safeguards the Arkansas Legislature has enacted regarding the initiative process, including:

  • Act 274 of 2025 by Sen. Kim Hammer (R — Benton) and Rep. Kendon Underwood (R — Cave Springs) requiring people to read the ballot title – which is a summary of the measure – before signing a petition.
  • Act 240 of 2025 by Sen. Kim Hammer (R — Benton) and Rep. Kendon Underwood (R — Cave Springs) requiring canvassers to verify a person’s identity via photo ID before obtaining the person’s signature on a petition to help prevent people from fraudulently signing someone else’s name.
  • Act 218 of 2025 by Sen. Kim Hammer (R — Benton) and Rep. Kendon Underwood (R — Cave Springs) requiring canvassers to inform people that petition fraud is a crime before obtaining their signatures on a petition. 
  • Act 453 of 2025 by Rep. DeAnn Vaught (R — Horatio) and Sen. Kim Hammer (R — Benton) requiring petition canvassers for ballot measures to be Arkansas residents who actually live in the state.
  • Act 241 of 2025 by Sen. Kim Hammer (R — Benton) and Rep. Kendon Underwood (R — Cave Springs) requiring petition canvassers to file an affidavit with the Secretary of State verifying the canvasser complied with the Arkansas Constitution and all laws concerning canvassing, perjury, forgery, and fraud.
  • Act 602 of 2025 by Rep. Ryan Rose (R — Van Buren) and Sen. Mark Johnson (R — Little Rock) requiring ballot initiative titles to be written at or below an eighth grade reading level. A ballot title is supposed to accurately summarize a measure so voters can decide if they support or oppose it.
  • Act 273 of 2025 by Sen. Kim Hammer (R — Benton) and Rep. Kendon Underwood (R — Cave Springs) clarifying that the signatures a canvasser collects will not count if the Secretary of State finds the canvasser has violated Arkansas’ laws concerning canvassing, perjury, forgery, or fraud.

The federal lawsuit claims the new laws make it too difficult to place constitutional amendments and initiated acts on the ballot.

We have written repeatedly about how Arkansas’ ballot initiative process has become the opposite of what it was intended to be. The Arkansas Constitution lets canvassers circulate petitions to place measures on a general election ballot. Its original intent was to give citizens a way to function as a “legislative body.” But instead of giving everyday people a way to enact their own laws, special interests have hired people to circulate petitions to place misleading, deceptive, and poorly written measures on the ballot in Arkansas.

Earlier this year, lawmakers passed measures to tighten the ballot initiative process. Now this lawsuit challenges several of those good laws.

Good laws like these are designed to address petition fraud and help average voters understand the ballot measure. The groups suing the state are asking the federal court to strike down these safeguards that the legislature passed. We believe our federal courts ultimately will recognize that and uphold these good laws as constitutional.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

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Arkansas Lottery Still Promoting Controversial Scratch-Off Tickets

Arkansas Lottery,

The Arkansas Lottery still relies heavily on scratch-off tickets.

Earlier this month the lottery rolled out four new scratch-off games advertising “over $16 million in prizes.” And over the past few weeks, the Arkansas Lottery’s social page has highlighted expensive tickets that sell for $10 or $20 each.

Statistically, people who buy a $20 lottery ticket stand to lose their money 66% of the time.

Unfortunately, the Arkansas Lottery has a long history of relying on expensive scratch-off tickets with long odds and large prizes to encourage people to gamble. Lottery ticket sales in Arkansas largely come from scratch-off tickets.

But scratch-off tickets are often associated with problem gambling and gambling addiction. The excitement of instantly winning makes scratch-offs particularly appealing — and potentially addictive — for many people.

In 2023, ABC News highlighted the harm that scratch-off tickets can cause, writing:

A 2022 nationwide investigation of state lotteries by the Howard Center For Investigative Journalism at the University of Maryland found stores that sell tickets are disproportionately clustered in lower-income communities in nearly every state where the game is played. . . .

Les Bernal, the national director for the nonprofit group Stop Predatory Gambling, told ABC News that while states use the revenue from lottery sales to fund services like education, they are doing so off the backs of low-income residents.

We have written before about how expensive scratch-off tickets prey on the truly desperate. They entice Arkansans to spend a lot of money on a single lottery ticket in hopes of a big payout, but more often than not people lose.

Family Council has supported legislation in the past that would restructure the Arkansas Lottery’s budget to increase spending on education.

The state-run lottery could provide millions of dollars more in scholarship funding if it would simply reduce its prize budget, increase its scholarship budget, and quit relying so heavily on scratch-off tickets.

Unfortunately, there simply doesn’t seem to be much impetus to do that.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

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