Alabama’s IVF ruling is having ripple effects. What it does – and doesn’t – do.
A national conversation about the full spectrum of issues around defining when “life” begins is underway at kitchen tables and workplaces alike, forged by weeks of legislative and judicial upheaval in Alabama and beyond.
It began last month when Alabama’s state Supreme Court declared human embryos located outside a woman’s body to be children – a reference to those created through in vitro fertilization, or IVF. Some clinics halted IVF treatments completely, fearing prosecution. Health care providers and fertility patients voiced frustration and panic.
State legislators responded three weeks later with a quickly passed law to safeguard IVF providers. Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey signed it right away, “so that couples in Alabama hoping and praying to be parents can grow their families through IVF.”
