Fertility clinic

A wave of Republicans led by Donald Trump vowed Friday to protect in vitro fertilization in the wake of an Alabama court ruling that said frozen embryos should be considered children, in what could become a galvanizing issue in the 2024 election.

Dozens of women have been summoned to testify in the Department of Organized Crime's preliminary investigation on the island of Crete after a request by the competent prosecutor in connection with the case of a fertility clinic in the city of Hania that may have operated as a front for an illegal adoption racket.

The case involved alleged IVF egg retrieval and embryo transfers.

At least 182 cases of exploitation of women since December 2022 in the field of egg retrieval and surrogacy and more than 400 cases of deception through sham in vitro fertilization (IVF) were detected at a fertility clinic on the island of Crete, according to police, who arrested eight people.

"In the state hospital, we often had to wait half a day for exams; in winter, we were queuing up outside, in the freezing cold," she shudders. "I had to face doctors who went through the same routine over and over again, without taking the time to find out why I can't conceive.