Abstract
Published in the wake of major shifts in United States abortion laws, Conceiving Christian America arrives at an opportune moment to help illuminate the social forces that influence reproductive politics. Cromer draws on extensive ethnographic work from inside the world of human embryo adoption to reveal the powerful role this branch of in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatments plays in promoting white Christian nationalist ideals in the United States. Embryo adoption at its core is much like the more general process by which cryogenically preserved embryos can be transferred between donors and recipients. However, in this case, the matching process is arranged by Christian organizations that employ orphan adoption terminology with strategic purpose.
The book draws on participant observations, qualitative interviews, and textual analysis to describe how and why these programs depict embryos as “frozen orphans” in need of “saving.” This process is achieved by moving them into the “warm home” of a uterus—which is both a material and metaphoric saving space where “imperiled innocents” can be enlisted as part of a broader effort to “save” the nation. Of course, the words we choose can hold profound consequences, and Cromer argues that these programs deploy Christian adoption rhetoric in methodical ways to motivate staff, recruit participants, and, more broadly, to redefine our cultural conceptions of gender and personhood and provide fuel for antiabortion policies.
The main chapters include discussions of the complex political and moral landscape of IVF in the United States, the premise of embryo saviorism, double-binds that arise in embryo adoption programs, the strategic “marking” and marketing of certain embryos, and the erasure of women’s bodies and physical labor. Along with supplementary vignettes, a vivid picture emerges of how embryo adoption draws on the established theological structure and rhetorical devices of other Christian adoption projects in the United States to establish a new battleground for pro-life politics.
In perhaps one of the less expected contributions of the book, Cromer argues that embryo saviorism descends from a long history of sacralized projects that allow participants to take on a savior role by defining other people’s children as in need of rescue from some group of “others” who are framed as dangerous or negligent. She outlines a disturbing legacy of programs in U.S. history that have operated under the guise of Christian morality to couple the erasure of a child’s origin with aggressive assimilation, including “orphan trains” that removed urban children from their poor (mostly Jewish and Catholic) families and shipped them westbound, the forcible placement of Native American children in boarding schools and non-Native adoptive families, extensive international adoption systems, and separating migrants from their children at the U.S. border. Cromer argues that embryo adoption follows this legacy by casting cryogenically preserved embryos as neglected orphans in need of saving from a cold, careless society. However, she points out that many donors continue to feel connected to their embryos after production and pay high prices to maintain their safe storage.
A particular strength of the book is identifying times when dissonance occurs between the political agendas and functional outcomes of the antiabortion movement and the Christian Right. For example, Cromer argues antiabortion politics are largely responsible for the deregulation of assisted reproduction and the subsequent accumulation of preserved embryos in the first place. She also observes that although the salvation narrative is a powerful rhetorical tool, it often proves problematic for embryo adoption program staff in practice. For example, donors may take offense and withdraw their participation if they discover they are being painted as negligent abandoners rather than gift-givers for another family experiencing infertility. Embryos are referred to as “pre-born children,” yet functionally, program contracts must treat them as property to be transferred—a fact that some acknowledge could potentially hold uncomfortable parallels to chattel slavery. And although program rhetoric frames every embryo as “God’s property” with equal value, recipients still tend to “shop” for an ideal child based on racial profiling and embryo quality ratings.
Overall, the book is rich with ethnographic insights, historical context, applications to sociological and anthropological concepts, and implications for the current political landscape in the United States. One aspect of the book that potentially hinders its widespread adoption as an introductory text is a rather dense prose. Though despite that small quibble, I expect this book would greatly interest people who study or teach topics related to reproductive technologies, the politics of family-making processes, white Christian nationalism, ableism, intersectional identities, medical sociology, and symbolic interactionism. Particularly in light of a recent ruling by Alabama’s Supreme Court that frozen embryos can be considered children under state law, this book is already proving valuable by revealing how embryo adoption programs and the resulting “snowflake babies” helped pave the way for a new conception of personhood.
