‘JUNK SCIENCE’

RFK Jr.’s Running Mate Nicole Shanahan Thinks IVF Is a Sham

She called in-vitro fertilization “one of the biggest lies being told about women’s health.”

Nicole Shanahan has slammed in vitro fertilization in past interviews and actively funds other research on “reproductive longevity,” Politico reported. The VP candidate has expressed doubt in IVF multiple times over the years, calling it “one of the biggest lies that’s being told about women’s health today” in an interview with the Australian Financial Review and arguing there isn’t enough research to support it. She detailed her personal experience with IVF failure and her subsequent natural pregnancy in an essay in People, and voiced ethical concerns about the “financial incentives” of IVF clinics in an interview with the New Yorker. Meanwhile, the billionaire attorney has bankrolled “reproductive longevity” research that aims to help women get pregnant well into their 50s, arguing that possible natural cures—like exposure to sunlight—have gone under-studied. Experts, however, say Shanahan’s efforts are based in “junk science.” Mimi Timmaraju, president of Reproductive Freedom for All, told Politico, “At the end of the day, IVF has been a long-established reproductive health technology, and Nicole Shanahan, bless her, is not a medical expert.”