Jesseca Dupart took to Instagram to address the criticisms surrounding her and Da Brat’s choice not to use a Black sperm donor for their IVF process.
She explained the challenges of finding a Black sperm donor due to the limited availability in the sperm donation pool, especially after considering genetic testing results that further narrowed down their options.
She shared, “Black men make up 5% or less of the sperm donation pool…once you put in your genetic testing, you’ll be lucky to find one, if any…”
Despite their efforts to find a Black donor, the couple faced restrictions in their selection process, which led them to choose a donor based on health considerations rather than racial preferences.
While expressing disappointment in the lack of IVF knowledge within the Black community, Dupart acknowledged that a joke made by Da Brat about the appearance of a Black donor was inappropriate and contributed to the misleading headlines surrounding their journey.
She clarified, “The headlines are misleading but also my wife made a distasteful joke and now it’s attached to the headline and making it seem like we choose strictly off of looks, which is not the case.”
Emphasizing the importance of a healthy mindset in conceiving their child, Dupart hopes that the situation sheds light on the scarcity of Black sperm donors and encourages more donations in the future.
She stated, “Our baby was created with a HEALTHY baby first mindset…we had severely limited options.”
Dupart also shared her genetic testing results on Instagram to illustrate how their choices for sperm donors were further constrained, highlighting the complexities of their decision-making process.
In a clip from their television series Brat Loves Judy, it was revealed that despite starting with thousands of donor options, most were eliminated due to genetic considerations, leaving them with a limited pool of candidates, with only one being Black.
Da Brat jokingly commented, “And that [dude] looked like Jiminy Cricket. I was like, ‘I’m sorry but that wasn’t gonna be my choice.’”
Both Da Brat and Dupart acknowledged the inappropriateness of the joke and recognized its negative impact on the perception of their final donor decision.
