Following a ruling by the state Supreme Court that embryos stored in a freezer should be considered children—a decision that led three fertility clinics in Alabama to temporarily suspend their services—the Republican-led legislature in Alabama passed measures on Thursday intended to protect the in vitro fertilization (IVF) sector from potential lawsuits.
The House passed a bill to shield IVF clinics from civil and criminal liability overwhelmingly with a 94-6 vote. The Senate followed suit with a vote of 34-0 on a similar measure, with one senator abstaining. The House and Senate must now vote on a unified bill before it becomes law.
Both chambers could pass such a bill next week before it is sent to Gov. Kay Ivey for her approval, but the timeline for its arrival on her desk remains uncertain. Ms. Ivey’s office did not respond promptly to calls seeking comment on Thursday.
Some IVF patients wanted to transfer their embryos out of Alabama after the state’s Supreme Court decision on Feb. 16 raised questions about the legality of storing, transporting, and using embryos.
Alabama state Sen. Tim Melson, a Republican, said that the bill’s passage through both houses of Congress does not guarantee that IVF providers will resume normal operations.
The Alabama legislature enacted the measure just one day after a comparable attempt to shield the IVF sector from federal oversight was blocked in Congress. Rep. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.) thwarted Democrat attempts to swiftly pass a federal bill that would protect IVF physicians and health insurance companies from prosecution and ensure that patients may access IVF procedures and facilities without fear of punishment.
When asked during a Senate debate what Alabama IVF providers should do with unused embryos under the new law, Mr. Melson said some providers had told him they intended to begin permanently storing embryos that were not implanted, in response to the court’s ruling.
The verdict was handed down by Alabama’s top court in a case that involved three families suing a reproductive clinic and hospital. The families claimed that the clinic and hospital had failed to adequately protect their frozen embryos, leading to their destruction when an unauthorized patient accessed them. The decision was based on the Sanctity of Life Amendment, which was passed by the citizens of the state in 2018 and upholds “the sanctity of unborn life and the rights of unborn children.”
The Alabama Attorney General’s office stated he had “no intention” to prosecute IVF providers or families that employed their services one week before the state House bill passed.
United States House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) voiced his support for IVF during Thursday’s weekly press conference, noting that the technology has assisted in 8 million births in the United States since the 1970s.
“If you look at the statistics, it’s really an amazing thing ... Since the technology in the mid [19]70s, an estimated 8 million births in the United States have been brought about because of that technology,” he added.
“It needs to be readily available. It needs to be something that every American supports and it needs to be handled in an ethical manner. We'll continue to support that, I don’t think there’s a single person in the Republican conference who disagrees with that statement, and there’s a lot of misunderstanding about it, but it’s something we need to support.”
