The Alabama court ruled that embryos are ‘children’
Defining Life as Beginning At Conception in Alabama’s Unlawed Fetus-to-Fetus Expansion
No other state has given personhood rights to all fertilized eggs. And even in states that allow the prosecution of women who put the health of their fetuses at risk, most do not apply that prosecution statute to pregnancies before the 24th week. That is the age at which most doctors consider a fetus to be able to live outside the womb.
“I was not surprised, I am a professor of law at the University of Arkansas, and a expert in reproductive rights,” she said. “Alabama Supreme court has for a long time, enthusiastically applied wrongful death law to pregnancy losses and [if] it’s a person the second it’s in the womb – if it’s a person, it’s a person. I’m not sure why the location in the freezer would matter.
Anyone who’s been following Alabama’s abortion debate should have seen that the state has prosecuted pregnant women for taking drugs that can hurt a fetus, which is against the law. Alabama outlaws all abortions, making no exceptions for cases of rape or incest.
There have been similar legislation passed by many other states, but no one else has defined life as beginning at conception.
What went wrong in this case pertains to the security of the hospital that was storing the frozen embryos. A random patient took control of the lab and dumped the embryos, ruining them.
The Alabama Supreme Court’s decision to destroy life would injure a holy God, and it could have a profound negative consequence for in vitro IVF
Alabama’s Chief Justice, Tom Parker, wrote in the decision that destroying life would “incur the wrath of a holy God.” Nine state Supreme Court Justices disagreed.
The irony is that the lawsuit filed by three couples who were upset that their embryos were destroyed may make it more difficult for them to conceive naturally.
The professor of law at the University of California Davis talks with Ailsa Chang about how the law may affect how the procedure is done.
Before we can get to the actual ruling, please give us a brief explanation of the situation that led to the lawsuit, which was brought to the state supreme court in Alabama?
Ziegler: Well, if embryos are persons under this ruling, that could have pretty profound downstream complications for how IVF is performed. So, in IVF, generally more embryos are created than are implanted — they’re stored, sometimes they’re donated or destroyed, depending on the wishes of the people pursuing IVF. If an embryo is a person, it’s obviously not clear that it’s permissible to donate that embryo for research, or to destroy it. It may not even be possible to create embryos you don’t implant in a particular IVF cycle.
Ziegler: Well, if Alabama IVF providers feel obligated to implant every embryo they create, that’s likely to both reduce the chances that any IVF cycle will be successful. It also might make it a lot more expensive. It’s already very expensive. I don’t know how much it’s going to cost, but I think the average is between $15,000 and $20,000 per cycle. Many patients don’t succeed with IVF after one cycle. If you are not allowed to create more than one embryo per cycle, that will make it hard for people who don’t have insurance to access in-vivo treatment.
Predictions of a Supreme Court Decision to Overturn Roe v. Wade: Vice President Biden and the Problem of the Affordable Care Act
Vice President joe Biden said in a statement that his administration “won’t stop” until the protection of abortion is restored in federal law.
One day after Haley told NBC News that embryos, to her, are babies, Biden said that “Embryos to me, are babies.”
“Be very careful how you do this because number one, you don’t want to take those fertility treatments away from women. Haley explained that it’s important for women like her to be able to bless a baby.
“But you also want to treat them with care and respect, as well as making sure that there’s a clear indication of what the parents should expect from them, and what the provider should be doing with them,” she said.
The Alabama Fertility Specialists said on its website that it would be suspending new IVF treatments due to the legal risk. And the Center for Reproductive Medicine in Mobile, the clinic at the center of the Supreme court lawsuit, has also halted IFV services.
Barbara Collura, President and CEO of RESOLVE: The National Infertility Association, called the court’s ruling and the move by UAB “horrifying signals of what’s to come across the country.”
Haley has been pro-life but wanted the Republicans to show “compassion” and find consensus on the abortion issue.
Democrats see abortion as a winning issue. Women voters will be motivated by the overturned of the law ahead of the midterms. The anti-abortion measure lost in solidly red states after the Supreme Court overturned the decision to deny access to abortion.
Harris said that the issue has been going on for more than a year and a half and people are suffering because of it. “[Former President Trump] was clear in his intention to hand pick three Supreme Court justices who would overturn the protections of Roe v. Wade. He did it. And that’s what got us to this point today.”
The Alabama Supreme Court has ruled that women in the US’ largest state can’t be prosecuted for attempting to get pregnant by taking abortion-causing drugs. Alabama Chief Justice Tom Parker wrote that destroying life would “incur the wrath of a holy God”. Nine court justices disagreed, stating that it would “incur the wrath of a holy God”.