Lawmakers are scrambling for ways to protect Alabama in vitro fertilization (IVF) services after multiple providers paused treatment in the wake of a state Supreme Court ruling that frozen embryos could be considered children under a state law.
Facing a wave of shock and anger from the decision, legislators prepared separate proposals in the Alabama Senate and House of Representatives that would seek to prevent a fertilized egg from being recognized as a human life or an unborn child under state laws until it is implanted in a woman’s uterus.
Justices last week ruled that three couples who had frozen embryos destroyed in a mishap at a storage facility could pursue wrongful death claims for their “extrauterine children.” Justices cited sweeping language that the Republican-controlled legislature and voters added to the Alabama constitution in 2018 saying that the state recognizes the “rights of the unborn child.”
Photo: Reuters
Alabama Senate Minority Leader Bobby Singleton, a Democrat, said that Republicans helped create the situation in their push to enact some of the most stringent anti-abortion laws in the country.
The result was eliminating a path for people to become parents, he said.
“At the end of the day, the Republican Party has to be responsible for what they have done,” Singleton said.
Former US president Donald Trump joined the calls for Alabama lawmakers to act on Friday and said he would “strongly support the availability of IVF.”
“Like the overwhelming majority of Americans, including the vast majority of Republicans, conservatives, Christians and pro-life Americans, I strongly support the availability of IVF for couples who are trying to have a precious, beautiful little baby,” Trump told an audience in South Carolina ahead of its Republican primary yesterday, urging Alabama to quickly find a solution.
State Republican lawmakers said they were working one.
“Alabamians strongly believe in protecting the rights of the unborn, but the result of the state Supreme Court ruling denies many couples the opportunity to conceive, which is a direct contradiction,” Alabama House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter said.
State Senator Tim Melson, who is a doctor, said his proposal seeks to clarify that a fertilized egg is a “potential life” and not a human life until it is implanted in the uterus.
“I’m just trying to come up with a solution for the IVF industry and protect the doctors and still make it available for people who have fertility issues that need to be addressed because they want to have a family,” said Melson, a Republican.
Alabama House Minority Leader Anthony Daniels, a Democrat, introduced legislation to clarify that a “human egg or human embryo that exists in any form outside of the uterus shall not, under any circumstances, be considered an unborn child” under state law.
“This is just the first step in unwinding this predicament our state has placed itself in,” Daniels said.
Alabama Attorney General Marshall has “no intention of using the recent Alabama Supreme Court decision as a basis for prosecuting IVF families or providers,” Alabama Chief Counsel Katherine Robertson said in a statement.
Alabama Governor Kay Ivey said the state wants to foster a culture of life and that includes “couples hoping and praying to be parents who utilize IVF.”
Additional reporting by AFP
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