Roe v Wade v Frozen Embryos

So, I watched the Special Report with Brett Baier the other day when they discussed frozen embryos.  The problem I have with these reports is that they are leaving out a HUGE missing piece from the national discussion.  Judicial injustice (I think that's what I'll call it from now on).  In most every case, the courts bend over backward and do hand springs NOT to give the embryos to a partner, no matter what.  They hide behind the 14th Amendment and claim right to privacy (right not to procreate).  This same argument was used in Roe v Wade; however, now with a twist.  Now,  the right to privacy essentially is the right to break a binding agreement, to override a mother's right to bring her child to term and basically, the court deciding to terminate the child over the mother's protest.  Huh?  How is that "right to privacy"?  In Roe v. Wade they wanted the government to keep their hands off of decisions made by women who were carrying a baby?  That seems like hands on to me.  In fact, it seems like meddling to the 14th degree.  In Roe v. Wade, they actually said the right for a woman to have an abortion must be balanced against the state's interest to protect women's health and to protect human life.  Hmmm.  I guess I get it.  The embryo is in the woman's body and there would be no way to retrieve it, so the government shouldn't decide what to do with it (this is regardless of whether you believe in abortion or not).  The court made a decision to protect that personal right.  For argument's sake, I will concede this issue.  But what about frozen embryos?  So, where two people deliberately contemplate and execute actions to conceive, where they more than likely have a written agreement as to disposition, where they pay thousands of dollars to create life, the mother goes through countless needle pricking, countless appointments and create life in the most deliberate way, all of a sudden the court can decide to terminate your unborn at a whim?  Sorry people, even if you believe in abortion, this should make no sense.


Jalesia “Jasha” McQueen is a Mother of 3 boys (one who has Down Syndrome), Veteran, Attorney, Entrepreneur and is currently in the Missouri Appellate Court seeking custody of her embryos, Noah and Genesis. “My dear Noah and Genesis, may you survive and be born.”  Jasha is co-founder and Director of Embryo Defense, a Missouri nonprofit organization dedicated to educating and providing resources for anyone who believes in saving human embryos. www.embryodefense.org. 

Rosie O'Donnell - Are we that far gone?

Rosie O'Donnell recently said that she wanted to smear her period blood on the faces of pro-lifers.  Really?  I understand that she is a celebrity.  I even understand that she is pro-choice and that she probably believes all pro-life people are religious zealots and trying to take away her personal rights.  However, what makes someone say something like that?  Is it a reflection of how far gone our society is?  Granted, some of it might be just for shock value.  I mean, after all, Rosie is a comedian.  But, it made me reflect a little.  There is some true "anger" by pro-choice advocates centered around pro-lifer's attack on someone's personal right to kill their unborn.  Nobody likes to be told that what they are doing is wrong or have something taken away from them that they believe is rightly theirs.  I think this is the biggest bone of contention between the two groups.  And just like a child being scolded for doing something wrong or being threatened that a toy might be taken away, pro-choice people may bubble over at the thought of being challenged by anyone on a right given to them by the law.  But, I say this: Rosie and anyone else who is feeling angry at pro-lifers, calm down.  The law is on your side currently.  Pro-lifers are trying to save lives with their message.  Surely, that deserves some respect and understanding.  Surely that isn't something that should provoke such anger.


Jalesia “Jasha” McQueen is a Mother of 3 boys (one who has Down Syndrome), Veteran, Attorney, Entrepreneur and is currently in the Missouri Appellate Court seeking custody of her embryos, Noah and Genesis. “My dear Noah and Genesis, may you survive and be born.”  Jasha is co-founder and Director of Embryo Defense, a Missouri nonprofit organization dedicated to educating and providing resources for anyone who believes in saving human embryos. www.embryodefense.org. 

Pro-lifers need to get with the program

I was on pro-choice advocates the other day, now it's my turn to get on pro-life advocates.  When I was on my journey to try and find help for my frozen embryo issue, I encountered something I never thought I would - pro-life advocates turning their backs on me.  Huh? People would secretly say they would help me but did not want anyone to know it in their pro-life circles.  Say what? I will say that I have had some individuals who are pro-life support me outwardly, but not many.  Apparently, staunch pro-lifers do not believe in IVF, the procedure that allows infertile couples to conceive.  Ok, I kind of understand that.  They believe that if God did not make you fertile that you should just deal with it and not take advantage of science to allow you to conceive.  They see it as "playing God".

Well, first of all, I have a problem with that reasoning, since sometimes when a sperm and egg get together, life is being created inside of a woman.  And every time, we have sex we have the possibility of creating life.  In my opinion, God determines which lives survive and which do not.  The IVF process, in my case, started off with 10 eggs and only 4 embryos were created.  The other 6 did not survive.  That's God.  Science cannot replace that.  Also, what if you needed a liver or kidney transplant?  Just because God gave you a bad organ, do you just have to deal with it and die?  I think not.  In my opinion, God gave us a brain to use and create things.  And he gave us guidance in that great book called the Bible to be ethical.  We have free choice and how we handle these issues are all choices we make.

Secondly, isn't the pro-life movement about saving lives?  Regardless of where you stand religiously with IVF, does it really matter HOW the lives were created?  Of course not.  If you are pro-life, you would not ask every woman going into an abortion clinic if she was a prostitute and if she was, you wouldn't say "oh okay, it's okay for you to kill your unborn because I don't believe in how you conceived your child."  Of course you wouldn't.  So, why do it for those who chose IVF?  It simply makes no sense.  Bottom line, this is the next pro-life issue on the horizon and the pro-life movement needs to get with the program if they want a front seat to save some lives.  Otherwise, they will be holding up signs at cryobanks, just like they do at abortion clinics and that will be it.


Jalesia “Jasha” McQueen is a Mother of 3 boys (one who has Down Syndrome), Veteran, Attorney, Entrepreneur and is currently in the Missouri Appellate Court seeking custody of her embryos, Noah and Genesis. “My dear Noah and Genesis, may you survive and be born.”  Jasha is co-founder and Director of Embryo Defense, a Missouri nonprofit organization dedicated to educating and providing resources for anyone who believes in saving human embryos. www.embryodefense.org. 

Pro-Choice Should Mean You Can Choose Life

Having been pro-choice for years, the focus was always on the right to an abortion.  The choice of life was somewhat overshadowed.  However, now that I am older, I often wonder about those loaded terms "pro-choice" and "pro-life".  What do they really mean?  And do they create more of a wedge between us than anything else?  In my mind, pro-choice means you can choose either life or death for your unborn.  And pro-life means you believe in choosing life.  So, why this wedge?  Why are pro-choice advocates upset about the organization Rebecca and I started?  Embryo Defense

I think it's because pro-choice advocates don't like to be told that choosing death for your unborn is wrong.  I get it.  Pro-choice women normally don't believe it's anyone's right to point out that a woman's choice to kill her unborn is unacceptable.  Pro-choice advocates also are normally not religious or if they are, it is private for them.  I get that as well.  I'm not going to beat anyone over the head with a bible.  That's the last thing anyone will see me do.  I practice my religion privately as well.

But I do believe there is room for a real conversation about what abortion is and should be considered, and where our society is headed.  I also believe that the caselaw surrounding frozen embryos is very telling on how our society views the value of life.  The only choice that is being protected is the choice to kill the unborn.  Unlike abortion, where the mother decides whether the baby lives or dies based on her desire to carry the baby to term, embryos are created through the IVF process by both parties, either of which could bring the child to term (through the marvel of surrogacy).  And by the way, these are "wanted" unborn children.  There is no doubt by looking at the court cases that one of the parents is fighting for their embryos, at all costs.  And yet, you would think, using the same logic of "choice" in abortion that the parent wanting the child should have his/her "choice".  Is the only choice protected to kill the unborn, in a case where one of the parents "wants" the unborn and is willing to bring the child to term?  Apparently, according to the case law on embryos, society doesn't care about a woman's (or man's) right to choose unless it's to kill the baby.  Something is awfully twisted about that.


Jalesia “Jasha” McQueen is a Mother of 3 boys (one who has Down Syndrome), Veteran, Attorney, Entrepreneur and is currently in the Missouri Appellate Court seeking custody of her embryos, Noah and Genesis. “My dear Noah and Genesis, may you survive and be born.”  Jasha is co-founder and Director of Embryo Defense, a Missouri nonprofit organization dedicated to educating and providing resources for anyone who believes in saving human embryos. www.embryodefense.org. 

Trump said he evolved to be Pro-Life: Me Too

While watching the presidential debate last night, Trump made an interesting and, I believe, genuine statement about having evolved into being Pro-Life.  He used the example of people in his life that chose not to abort their child and that child turning out to be such a wonderful person.  This struck a chord with me.  I must admit, I was pro-choice for a long time in my life.  For literally years.  Then, I had my twin boys in 2007 through the marvel of science.  I have pictures of them when they were just embryos.  How amazing.  I then, delivered my boys and saw the miracle of birth.  I knew that they were only 2 of 4 that had survived.  All the other embryos that science had sought to make had died.  They defied the odds.  After giving birth, I could not imagine aborting any child, even at conception.  I felt guilty for having believed society's idea of when life began.  I think it was because I had grown up and become a mother.  Still, my belief was private.  I did not feel the need to go out and try to convince everyone not to destroy life.  In my mind, that was their business.

In 2012, I became pregnant unexpectedly by my boyfriend at the time.  I, obviously, was keeping the child, even though my boyfriend was not happy.  Nothing, however, could prepare me for what was going to happen next.  At 16 weeks, my stomach felt strange.  It felt drawn in, like the water had seeped out of my stomach.  I wasn't sure what was going on.  A week later, I started bleeding.  I was worried and went to the doctor only to find out that my baby was dead.  She had died inside of me a week earlier and had to come out.  They said she was too big and therefore, I had two options.  1) To induce labor and deliver her or 2) Cut her up and take her out (called a D&C, which is Dilation and Curettage, and what Planned Parenthood and other abortion clinics do to the unborn).  I chose to be induced.  I held off on pain medication and it was incredibly painful.  It wasn't a natural pain because the doctor had given me the strongest medication to induce.  After about 10 hours, they gave me some pain medication to ease the pain and I delivered her 15 minutes later.

She fit in the palm of my hand, but everything was clear to me - she was a little human being!  From her fingernails to her little tongue and her tightly shut eyes, she was a person.  It was a tragic event, but one I will never forget.  Abortions are performed at 20 weeks and earlier, but my 16 week old was a little dead person.  My mind raced.  Everything I thought I knew about pregnancy and babies had been wrong.  I felt like I had been mislead.  How can we not try and protect this tiny human who cannot speak for herself?  How did we develop into a society that is so callous towards life that we discard it without a thought? How could I have ever believed in abortion after holding my little baby in my hand?  How many other women have been mislead?

That's when I really turned the corner.  I am a realist and know we cannot put the genie back in the bottle with abortion, but we should really not mislead people.  Abortion is a horrible, tragic and violent, not something to be celebrated.  It is a somber ordeal that women need to consider very carefully before they do it. She/he truly is a baby, no matter what people say.  And if you choose to abort, you are killing another human being (the worst kind of killing because it is an innocent life).  And even from the moment of conception, you can see the little life moving and striving to continue his/her development.  It's not someone's imagination.  From embryo until a child reaches adult age, you see them develop.  It's an amazing gift and the wonder of life is evident through every step.  I wish our society could see what I see.


Jalesia “Jasha” McQueen is a Mother of 3 boys (one who has Down Syndrome), Veteran, Attorney, Entrepreneur and is currently in the Missouri Appellate Court seeking custody of her embryos, Noah and Genesis. “My dear Noah and Genesis, may you survive and be born.”  Jasha is co-founder and Director of Embryo Defense, a Missouri nonprofit organization dedicated to educating and providing resources for anyone who believes in saving human embryos. www.embryodefense.org