Alexa and Jon Taggart.Photo:Courtesy of Alexa Taggart
Courtesy of Alexa Taggart
After suffering amiscarriagein 2017, the chemical engineer tells PEOPLE exclusively that she and her husband Jon, a Delta pilot, were able to successfully have a son, Graham, in 2021.
But after she was diagnosed withPolycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS)— whichWorld Health Organizationcalls a “leading cause of infertility” — her doctors said, “if you want a kid, IVF is your best option.”
It’s a grueling process: Before a cycle can begin, candidates must undergo many genetic tests and other exams.
Jon and Alexa Taggart.Courtesy of Alexa Taggart
By late 2023, the Taggarts had successfully completed their IVF and had their egg retrieval in January 2024. It resulted in two viable embryos.
They were in the home stretch in February, wrapping up final tests required before the first implantation could occur.
“They do an ultrasound the first day of your cycle,” Taggart, 32, tells PEOPLE. “So I went in on the 22nd of February, did the ultrasound, did the blood work and was waiting for the call for those results.”
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“They ended up calling me saying my cycle was canceled.”
The Alabama Supreme Courthad just ruled that frozen embryosare legally considered children.
Although the Taggarts live in Pensacola, Florida, their eggs are stored at a clinic in Mobile, Alabama.
The Taggarts have one child, son Graham.Courtesy of Alexa Taggart
But due to the decision, “no healthcare provider will be willing to provide treatments if those treatments may lead to civil or criminal charges,”American Society for Reproductive Medicine(ASRM) said ina statementcondemning the ruling.
For Taggart, “the problem is none of the transportation companies are willing to take the liability based on the Alabama ruling to move [the embryos.]”
“I just fell to the floor and started crying, because we literally talked about what could happen and everything and it just all came to fruition. We’ve been waiting so long for a kid and then to have that ripped away from you."
She continued, “This is someone else trying to control your situation that’s outside of you and there’s nothing you can do differently. It’s some other people sitting in another courtroom controlling what you’re doing in your reproductive rights. Helpless is the best way to describe it.”
“There were some cancer patients there that weren’t able tofreeze their eggsbefore they had theircancertreatments, and now they’re not able to have kids naturally,” she tells PEOPLE.
Alexa Taggart.Courtesy of Alexa Taggart
On March 7,two clinics in Alabamasaid they were moving forward with IVF procedures after a law was passed to protect IVF in the state — but the Taggarts’ clinic was not one of them.
“I reached out to our insurance provider to see what options we have but I am hoping they will help us move the embryos to Florida,” she tells PEOPLE. “I hope that transportation companies are willing to transport them to Florida again.”
“We’re just trying to do the first step of getting them accessible.”
As PEOPLE staffer Jen Juneau wrote in afirst-person essayabout her own experience with the Alabama ruling, “I am one of many, many Americans who has struggled against not only legal rulings like this, but also a healthcare system that continually invalidates women’s health. I can only hope that the future is less bleak, for the sake of my own daughter and would-be families everywhere.”
And as Alexa Taggart tells PEOPLE, “Someone you’ve never met in a different state is controlling whether you can have a kid or not.”
source: people.com
