Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) denounced the GOP response to an Alabama Supreme Court decision last week restricting in vitro fertilization (IVF), calling Republicans’ reactions disingenuous and part of the party’s efforts to limit women’s reproductive rights. The ruling handed down Monday classifies fertilized embryos as children, meaning failed IVF procedures could result in criminal charges…
The chair of the Alabama Senate’s Healthcare Committee plans to file a bill that could add protections for in vitro fertilization in the state amid mounting criticism of an Alabama Supreme Court decision putting IVF in jeopardy. Sen. Tim Melson, R-Florence, said Thursday morning the bill would clarify that embryos are not viable until they […] The post Alabama senator planning to file bill that could protect in vitro fertilization appeared first on Arkansas Advocate.
Lawmakers began scrambling for ways to protect Alabama in vitro fertilization services after multiple providers paused services 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 House and Senate 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 cited sweeping language that the GOP-controlled Legislature and voters added to the Alabama Constitution in 2018 saying that the state recognizes the “rights of the unborn child.”
For the first time, a frozen embryo has been recognized by the law as a person with rights. This decision by the Alabama Supreme Court last week is a huge victory for anti-abortion groups, who have long sought to pass fetal personhood laws. This time, by declaring not just a fetus but a fertilized egg in a lab the equivalent of an “unborn child,” the courts have done them one better. If this keeps up, anti-abortion groups may succeed at outlawing both abortion and in vitro fertilization, or IVF.
The Alabama Supreme Court recently ruled that frozen embryos can be considered children under state law, raising concerns about how the decision could affect in vitro fertilization, commonly known as IVF. On Wednesday, the University of Alabama Birmingham hospital paused IVF treatments while it considers the ruling's significance. Here's what to know about this increasingly common fertility treatment. WHAT IS IVF?