Cory Booker Invites Fertility Care Advocate To State Of The Union
India-West Staff Reporter
NEWARK N.J. – Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) said that his guest at the State of the Union address will be Roshni Kamta, a Jersey City native whose breast cancer diagnosis at 22 years old led her to freeze her eggs and inspired her advocacy for wider access to fertility treatments on behalf of breast cancer patients and women of color in healthcare.
After Kamta received the news that she had stage 2 breast cancer, her oncologist informed her that the chemotherapy she needed to treat her cancer could prevent her from having children in the future. Advised to freeze her eggs promptly before starting cancer treatment, Kamta found herself grappling with the decision of whether to pursue a costly fertility procedure her insurance was not willing to cover.
Kamta applied for and received a grant from The Chick Mission, a non-profit working to ensure that every young woman with a cancer diagnosis has the option to preserve their fertility by providing direct financial support, and educational programs, and by advocating for state policies that require fertility treatment coverage for cancer patients.
“As we witness alarming attacks on IVF and other assisted reproductive technology, particularly in the aftermath of the recent Alabama Supreme Court ruling and the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision, it’s crucial that we listen to people like Roshni. Recognizing that everyone’s path to parenthood is unique and their decision to pursue IVF deeply personal, we must protect and ensure equitable access to fertility treatments. Roshni’s story is a testament to the importance of removing barriers to IVF and advancing healthcare policies that prioritize dignity and choice for all,” said Booker.
“When diagnosed with breast cancer, I had to advocate for the best care—not only for the medical treatment that would save my life, but also a chance to have a family of my own,” Kamta said. “I applaud Senator Booker’s efforts to make fertility treatment accessible, despite the many barriers patients must face. I am forever grateful for The Chick Mission’s financial support—they made sure I could decide to have children in the future, not cancer.”
Kamta, now 27, is a Rutgers University graduate, lives in Jersey City and works in marketing at Inc. Magazine.
In the wake of Alabama’s State Supreme Court ruling that frozen embryos created during the IVF process are “children” under state law, Booker cosponsored the Access to Family Building Act, legislation which would establish a statutory right to access IVF for all Americans who need it to start or grow a family.
Pradeep Srivastava
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This is a smart move on the part of the Democrats. Republican politicians need to be called out for their irrational, illogical, and untenable views on IVF and abortion. If they insist on believing that life begins at the time of conception, then embryo is a person and abortion must be illegal except under extenuating circumstances like life of the mother, rape, and incest. But if embryo is a person, then they should be unilaterally against IVF because the IVF procedure inherently involves destruction of embryos that were not used to produce a child. How come Alabama is now changing its laws to facilitate IVF because of political pressure? Being pro-life and being anti-IVF are compatible, but being pro-life and pro-IVF are incompatible if the premise is that life begins at the time of conception. Abortion and IVF are private issues to be decided by the women and their physicians, not by politicians. The bottom line is that unless Democrats have a president in the White House, a majority in the House, and a filibuster proof majority in the Senate, women-friendly laws on abortion and IVF cannot be codified at the federal level and these laws that affect all the Americans need to be uniform all over the nation; it’s dumb to have a patchwork of state laws that only creates chaos, confusion, and inconsistency.
March 7, 2024