They Told Us Motherhood Could Wait, Then Sold It Back To Us At $12,000 A Round

Eight thousand dollars was a lot of money for a college student like me, barely making rent each month. And all I had to do was donate some eggs. Just a few days before seeing the ad, I was asking my cell phone company what their late payment policy was. Then I saw it: a bright pink flyer on a bulletin board offering thousands of dollars if I donate my eggs. I ripped the number tab off and tucked it deep into my pocket. It was tempting. And they knew that. Whether it’s the IVF industry seeking to profit off of creating human life or the abortion industry seeking to profit off of ending it, both groups deliberately target some of the most vulnerable women, at one of the most susceptible times of their lives. According to ReproductiveRights.org , “More than half of the undergraduate students enrolled in college last year were women—and the highest rate of unintended pregnancy in the U.S. is among women 20 to 24 years of age.” These industries aren’t stupid. When it comes to IVF and abortion clinics, they are the hunters, and we are the foxes. They target collegiate women who are too overbooked with morning classes to be fully informed. I didn’t go through with the egg donation. I can’t remember why—it was over 10 years ago. But as a current mother of two, I shudder at the thought of having desperately sold my eggs back then, never knowing if they had been used. I could have a child out there somewhere that I’d never get to meet. Or maybe I would. With DNA testing so common now, that child, like so many other children conceived using third parties, might've come looking for me one day. I find it dizzying. The Business of “Care” These establishments often pitch themselves as working to help women. But they’re not just clinics. They’re industries—cold, calculated, and profit-driven. They choose their locations the same way any smart business does: based around their target demographic. Abortion clinic Bread & Roses Women’s Health Center is a mile from the University of Florida. Planned Parenthood is down the block from the University of California. The Ryan Center, another abortion clinic, set up shop on the campus of the University of Chicago. And it’s not just where they set up shop—it’s the flyers, events, lectures, abortion parties, IVF cocktail hours. I couldn’t walk from one class to the next without being reminded that my body could be monetized or controlled “for my good”. They Don’t Talk About the Risks Now that I’m financially stable and understand my body better after experiencing marriage and pregnancy, I realize that young women are the prey. It’s become obvious what both the baby taking industry and the baby making industry have purposefully left out: The risks. The consequences. The heartbreak. Abortion Risks: ● Incomplete abortion (infections, hemorrhaging) ● Ectopic pregnancy misdiagnosis ● Long-term fertility problems ● Death ● Depression, grief, suicidal thoughts ● And always, the loss of a child In the same state that legally demands abortion be accessible on college campus, California, they studied over 200,000 women who received funding for an abortion or delivery under Medicaid and found that women who had abortions were at 2.5 times higher risk of suicide than the women who gave birth. Egg Freezing Risks: ● Ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome ● Pain, bloating, blood clots, nausea ● Mood swings, headaches, kidney issues ● Organ damage, infection ● Emotional toll if it fails And most devastating of all: false hope. Only 2-12% of frozen eggs ever result in a live birth. Egg Donation Risks: Same as egg freezing, plus the emotional weight: ● Knowing you may have a biological child out there ● No legal connection or control ● Large sibling pods from the same donor ● Children discovering half-siblings through DNA tests Evie Magazine exposed this in a must-read article by Alina Clough , who saw an egg donation ad in her college newspaper. It’s funny—cultural messages and these two industries discourage young women from starting families or keeping their babies. But they recruit those same women to create children for others through egg donation. Maybe funny isn’t the right word. Though biologically accurate, they are careful to never refer to women with unplanned pregnancies or considering egg donation as “mothers.” They wouldn’t have any clients if they did. From Classrooms to Apps They don’t just wait for women to come to them, they create the demand. It starts in school with Planned Parenthood-led sex ed. Then it’s TV shows like Grey’s Anatomy , casual abortion talk in classrooms, free birth control at colleges, it’s in the news almost daily. And then the ads flood social media platforms—girls of all ages are exposed to reproductive indoctrination through Instagram, snapchat, and TikTok. “Do you know what will happen to Cristina if she has a kid that she doesn’t want? It will almost kill her. Trying to pretend that she loves a kid as much as she loves surgery will almost kill her, and it’ll almost kill your kid. Do you know what it’s like to be raised by someone who didn’t want you? I do. To know you stood in the way of your mother’s career? I do.” Straight from the mouth of the Meredith Grey. This show has been streamed over 3 billion hours globally. It’s all part of the same campaign: convince a girl that her future depends on separating from her fertility, then sell her back pieces of it later. Behind The Scenes Big Fertility and abortion providers like Planned Parenthood collaborates with TV and film creators to normalize abortion and reproductive services. They've spent millions providing set materials and consulting on scripts. I’ve Seen the Shift Firsthand After decades of indoctrination, more women are starting to wake up; I’ve seen it firsthand. In my early twenties, I worked for a fortune 100 company. I remember meeting this girl for the first time. We started chatting, just small talk. She asked me what my plan was while working at this company and I said, “my only goal was to make as much money as possible until I have children, then I want to be a stay at home mom.” She replied with “Oh, I could never be a stay at home mom, I’d be bored”. But I couldn’t relate. “There’s so many books I want to read, hobbies I want to learn, places to volunteer and raising children is a lot of work. Working this 9-5 takes up all of my time, time I’d rather use doing things I want to do.” Her whole demeanor changed, “I never thought about it that way. But I’m already 24… if it takes me a year to meet someone, then a couple years of dating, a year engaged...”. She started spiraling, “two years married before kids... I’d be 31 or 32…” In that very moment it seemed she gained an entirely new perspective on her future. She’d always just assumed marriage and motherhood could wait, that her twenties were for building a career, and everything else would come later. She never paused to consider whether that was truly the life she wanted . But suddenly, she did. I was there when it happened: one split second and it all changed for her. She realized that she didn’t want to stay at her job long-term. She didn’t want to spend her days away from the children she hoped to have one day. So she started working backwards—doing girl math, if you will—not to chase promotions, but to design a life where she could be home with her kids. A life where motherhood didn’t have to wait. I said gently, “You’re going to be okay. You don’t have to figure it all out now.” She looked at me and said, “Why did I think I wanted to work here forever?” I never saw her again. I hope she’s happy now. Apparently many girls find themselves in her shoes. What I saw in her, I saw in other girls around my age. Girls raised to believe that marriage and motherhood were optional extras—hobbies, maybe, if you had time. College degrees and corporate jobs became the standard. Anything else was considered a risk to their independence or livelihood. The anti-child cultural and institutional messaging worked. For the first time ever, young men express a stronger desire for children than young women. This is new. We used to raise our daughters with joyful anticipation for a family. We taught them how to cook, sew, and date. Not because we believed that the only place for women was barefoot and in the kitchen, but because that’s what girls instinctually longed for. I worked hard in the corporate world for eight years. I made great friends, earned good money, and found myself in my dream position. But I felt empty. Then I became a mom and everything changed. We had to rearrange our lives to make it work, but we built a life where I could finally stay home with my children—a life sweeter than fiction. The work I do in my home and raising my children is much harder than the work I ever did in a cubicle, but it's so much more fulfilling. Every diaper, every book read, every sticky kiss feels like purpose. I’m doing better than I ever was. They Profit From the Delay The IVF and abortion industries don’t care about the right to family plan, they care about money. They profit off of women delaying marriage and motherhood. The longer we wait, the more we need their services. Egg freezing, IVF, abortions—all billion dollar markets. They start young. They follow girls from middle school to college. When we’re finally on our own, vulnerable and fertile, they move in. What Now? It’s not wrong for businesses to have a target audience. But it is wrong to spend 18 years indoctrinating girls only to profit off their fear or desperation when they’re still young and reckless. More women are waking up—sharing stories, filing lawsuits, recording podcasts, posting online. Speaking out. But how many more women, children, and families have to be hurt before the tide shifts? This lingering question keeps me up at night. Let’s raise daughters who are free. Truly free. Free to know the truth. Free to say no to the industries that prey on them. Free to embrace motherhood. Free to live with purpose, not pressure. And let’s never confuse “care” with coercion again.