Source: Tom Williams / Getty
Former first lady Michelle Obama reminded voters that she benefited from the privileges reproductive freedom provides during her powerful speech at the 2024 Democratic National Convention on Tuesday night.
She told voters in vitro fertilization helped her and husband, former President Barack Obama, start a family.
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Obama first opened up about her IVF journey in her 2018 memoir, “Becoming.” When she initially tired to get pregnant, she said she suffered a miscarriage. She was only able to conceive her two daughters, Malia and Sasha through IVF. She revealed she felt “lost and alone” after going through the miscarriage 20 years ago.
“We were trying to get pregnant, and it wasn’t going well,” Obama wrote in her book. “We had one pregnancy test come back positive, which caused us both to forget every worry and swoon with joy, but a couple of weeks later I had a miscarriage, which left me physically uncomfortable and cratered any optimism we felt.”
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She shared details about giving herself hormone shots to help her pregnancy chances while the former commander-in-chief was at the Illinois state legislature. In an ABC News interview at the time of her book’s release, Obama told the network she wanted to share her pregnancy experience to help other women who may be struggling.
“I felt like I failed because I didn’t know how common miscarriages were because we don’t talk about them,” she told ABC News. “We sit in our own pain, thinking that somehow we’re broken.”
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The Obama’s successful journey led to two daughters who are successful in their own right. Obama’s eldest daughter, Malia, is now 26 and recently presented her short film at Sundance Film Festival this year. Her youngest daughter, Sasha, graduated from the University of Southern California with a degree in sociology in 2023.
In her book, Obama said “even two committed go-getters with a deep love and a robust work ethic can’t will themselves into being pregnant.”
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