Horror stories critiquing “reproductive technologies”

Almost two decades ago, pro-life activist Lila Rose went undercover at Planned Parenthood facilities to capture video of staff’s covering up evidence of statutory rape. Since those early days, Rose and her organization Live Action have built a track record of spotlighting the illegal activities of people and organizations that profit from the often-legal killing of unborn children. They’re also not afraid to expose the darker side of in vitro fertilization and gestational surrogacy, practices that even some who oppose abortion endorse.

Live Action continues this track record with its new true crime podcast Conceiving Crime.

Sami Parker narrates the 10 roughly 30-minute episodes of the first season, digging into true and shocking stories related to procreation and pregnancy: The abortionist who stored thousands of aborted babies’ bodies in his garage. The moms who underwent IVF at the same fertility clinic and unwittingly gave birth to each other’s babies. The surrogate pressured to abort when the baby didn’t meet her biological parents’ standards. The fertility doctor who used his own sperm to inseminate patients’ eggs without their knowledge.

Each of the stories spotlights extreme cases that abortion advocates and pro-lifers, IVF supporters and opponents, will all agree are just plain wrong. But the podcast uses the stories as segues into broader critiques of abortion and artificial reproductive technologies that not all listeners—including pro-life listeners who support IVF—will agree with. Live Action doesn’t mask its disapproval of these industries, so don’t expect arguments in favor of more ethical approaches to IVF. Still, the episodes raise necessary questions about artificial reproduction that more pro-lifers need to consider.

All of the episodes deal with heavy content, but only one of the nine available at the time of this review begins with a warning about “mature themes.” Episode 4 includes descriptions of sexual assault that might be too much for some listeners.

Parker is an engaging and descriptive storyteller. Music and occasional sound effects and audio clips of interviews help bring the stories to life. But Parker’s narration makes up most of the audio.

It’s too bad Live Action didn’t conduct more original interviews. Much of the minimal interview sound was pulled from other sources. The podcast would be more compelling if the producers had spoken directly to people involved, when possible, and used audio clips from those interviews to let them tell their own stories. But perhaps that would have left less room for Live Action’s critiques.