S.B. 159 is harming the birth rate of babies, contradicting their beliefs

In the wake of the overturn of Roe v. Wade in 2022, the state of Alabama enacted one of the strictest abortion laws in the country, only allowing them if there was a serious health risk to the mother. It did not come as a surprise when they decided to criminalize IVF “in vitro fertilization” treatments. 

The Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos are considered to be children under Alabama’s Wrongful Death of a Minor Act. This decision stems from three couples, the Aysennes, the LePages and the Fondes, trying to sue a fertility clinic and a hospital after they lost frozen embryos during an accident at a storage facility. 

In December 2020, an alleged patient at the Mobile Infirmary Medical Center managed to gain access to the clinic, enter the cryogenic nursery and remove several embryos, including the embryos that belonged to the Aysennes, the LePages, and the Fondes, from their containers. The patient burned their hands on the containers, due to the extremely cold temperatures, and the embryos fell to the floor. 

After the Circuit Court of Mobile County, Alabama dismissed Case No. SC-2022-0515, the couples decided to keep pursuing this lawsuit and appealed it. After much turmoil and back and forth, Justice Jay Mitchell of the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that the Wrongful Death of a Minor Act applied to extrauterine children, unborn children who are located outside of a biological uterus. 

The ruling makes clear that they decided such because the IVF center artificially gestated the embryos in question to “a few days” of age and then placed them in the cryogenic nursery. This is viewed as keeping the extrauterine embryos “alive” at a fixed stage until they are used in IVF implantation treatments. 

The Alabama Court stands on their belief that life begins at conception, as they have stated plenty of times in their initial ruling. They said that once the embryos fell onto the floor, they were killed. The court supported its decision by relying on wording added to the Alabama Constitution in 2018 stating that Alabama protects the “rights of the unborn child.” 

The Alabama Court cited “philosophical grounds” like Niel M. Gorsuch’s “The Future of Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia,” arguing that “human life is fundamentally and inherently valuable,” as well as the Alabama Constitution that “invoked the favor and guidance of Almighty God” that “all men… are endowed [with life] by their Creator.” 

Granting “personhood” to frozen embryos impacted fertility treatments in Alabama severely. IVF services were paused because of this initial ruling leaving multiple families without their scheduled embryo transfers. 

After weeks of protests and cries for help from expecting parents and IVF treatment clinics, Governor Kay Ivey signed legislation protecting IVF fertilization clinics from future lawsuits. This was enough to get IVF providers back to their clinics and resume their services. This would seem like amazing news, but it really is not. 

Senate Bill 159 does grant criminal immunity to clinics, storage facilities, doctors and others involved in the IVF process for “death or damage to an embryo.” But it only does that, it does not un-grant embryos personhood. Frozen embryos in the state of Alabama still have the same rights as children and in a sense as humans. 

The wording in both the ruling and the bill is very strategic. The ruling outright said that children were killed, but simultaneously continued to call these said children “Embryo A” through “Embryo D.” S.B. 159 states that no one is being held criminally responsible for destroying embryos and the members affected may only get monetary compensation for the in-vitro cycles damaged. 

This ruling was never about the original lawsuits for negligence, wantonness and compensatory damages for mental and emotional distress. It was about pushing forth a far-right, Pro-Life, fundamentally Christian agenda that fertilized eggs are human beings. 

I acknowledge that I am not a mother, nor have I gone through the IVF process to become pregnant. But I am aware of IVF treatment through family and friends in my life. IVF is a tool being used by many couples and parents looking to start or expand their family. Most Americans deal with fertility issues, so IVF has become a staple in solving this issue and helping people have babies. 

It was mind-boggling to see that many far-right Christian Republicans viewed IVF embryos as being unethical. Their main point is that too many embryos are being created unnecessarily and then “discarded.” 

During the IVF process, many eggs are fertilized which turn into embryos. This is because IVF implantation is not always successful. It is easy to fertilize an egg, but the uterus ultimately decides whether to implant or not. It is a biological process that has no set “yes or no” answer. Demonizing this strenuous, stressful and at times traumatic series of events negatively shines a light on people simply wanting to become parents. 

I cannot understand why a method of creating babies for people who cannot do it naturally is being bashed. I thought we wanted babies to be born. Why are we focusing on granting frozen embryos more rights than the parents of these said “children?”

Far-right conservatives believe that having a lot of “unused babies” referring to frozen embryos is unethical because those “babies” will be discarded, donated to science or offered up for embryo adoption. 

Both the ruling and the bill led to nowhere. In reality, they led to even more confusion and questions. The parents of the destroyed embryos cannot get any sort of criminal compensation and frozen embryos are now considered the same as “out of uterus” children. 

The IVF clinic and the storage facility that destroyed their embryos are no longer responsible for the discrepancies on their part and never will be. And mothers, surrogates and people who will be implanted with these embryos are now going to be held criminally responsible for killing their “children.” 

The internet discourse has been insane as well. Some have even asked Alabama lawmakers if their embryos can have social security numbers, so they can claim their newfound children on their tax returns. I know the politics in question is extremely messed up when the internet Republicans and Democrats agree. 

They also agree that this initial ruling has sent the IVF community and service providers nationwide into a frenzy. Soon many red states are going to follow Alabama’s lead and severely harm the IVF families and clinics. This bill and ruling are helping absolutely no one. What it is doing is stopping the creation and birth of countless babies. “Saving” babies was never the goal with these nonsense rulings and bills, controlling who gets to create life is.