After the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos are children, women who were undergoing fertility treatments in the southern US state had their lives thrown into shock and uncertainty.
One woman had her long-awaited embryo transfer canceled, while another did not know when or if she would be able to retrieve her frozen eggs, they told US media.
The state supreme court ruled in mid-February that embryos created by in vitro fertilization (IVF) should have the rights of children.
Destroying abnormal or non-viable embryos — among other common measures practiced by fertility clinics — could therefore open the clinics to liability claims.
Immediately after the ruling, several Alabama clinics announced that they were suspending their programs, while the issue quickly became a national political flashpoint.
“Human life cannot be wrongfully destroyed without incurring the wrath of a holy God, who views the destruction of His image as an affront to Himself,” Alabama Chief Justice Tom Parker wrote in his concurring opinion.
After seeing a harsh response to the decision’s impacts — including from national Republicans such as Donald Trump — state lawmakers rushed to find a fix to allow clinics to reopen.
On Wednesday, the state legislature quickly passed new legislation, which the governor promptly signed, but uncertainty still remains — with experts fearing that ambiguities in the text may not provide a sufficient shield.
The Alabama saga was the latest shift in the American legal landscape related to reproductive rights following the US Supreme Court’s historic 2022 decision to revoke the national right to abortion.
Even then, specialists had expressed worries that fertility treatments could be curtailed if conservative states moved to ban abortions by giving embryos and fetuses personhood rights.
Families ‘stuck’ in legal limbo
Meghan Cole, an Alabama attorney, has a blood disorder that causes her “not to be able to carry children,” she told NBC’s Today Show after the state’s decision.
“My husband and I want a child desperately,” she said, explaining that they had used IVF and were planning to transfer an embryo to a surrogate to carry the fetus.
But a few days after the Alabama ruling, her clinic told her that the transfer had been canceled.
“We had meetings with lawyers all day. We can’t move forward knowing that we might be open to some sort of liability or criminal prosecution if something were to happen to the embryo before it’s transferred,” she recalled her doctor saying.
Despite her pleas, the clinic would not proceed, not even allowing her to transfer the embryo out of state.
Anistie Held, who lives far away in Virginia, found herself in similar straits.
She was diagnosed with cancer while residing in Florida, and chose to have her eggs frozen in neighboring Alabama before undergoing chemotherapy, she told NBC Washington.
She said she hopes to use the eggs within the year, but her clinic “paused all their IVF treatments” following the court ruling.
Cole said she and her husband were “stuck,” and left wondering “how long this will take?”
They expect the entire process, including payments to the surrogate, to cost them around $250,000. A single IVF cycle in the United States can cost more than $20,000.
‘Pro-life, pro-family’
Experts and NGOs strongly denounced the decision, while Democratic President Joe Biden called it “outrageous and unacceptable.”
“What is really frightening about the decision is it uses the very concept — and I am quoting the decision — ‘extra-uterine children,'” said Nancy Northup, head of the Center for Reproductive Rights.
“If it weren’t so scary in its implications, it almost sounds like a farce,” she told CNN.
For Republicans, the case has become a major political liability, with Democrats expected to make the preservation of reproductive rights a central part of their 2024 election campaign.
“IVF is a complex issue, no doubt, and I anticipate there will be more work to come,” said Alabama Governor Kay Ivey, a Republican, on Wednesday after signing into law new liability protections for any embryos destroyed during IVF.
“From protecting the unborn to supporting IVF, Alabama is proud we are a pro-life, pro-family state.”
The University of Alabama at Birmingham, one of several facilities to halt IVF treatments after the February ruling, said Wednesday it would “promptly” resume treatments but “continue to assess developments and advocate for protections for IVF patients and providers.”
