Alabama’s decision to consider frozen embryos children puts Republicans in a tight spot – Technologist

Republicans, already on the defensive about abortion, are struggling to contain the fallout from the February 16 ruling by the Supreme Court of Alabama, one of the most conservative states in the United States.

With the near-unanimous support of its nine Republican justices (only one voted against), the court qualified frozen embryos as “extrauterine children” deserving of constitutional protection, a first in the US. The court’s chief justice, Tom Parker, 72, argued that since the state had adopted “a theologically based view of the sanctity of life, (…) life cannot be wrongfully destroyed without incurring the wrath of a holy God.” Even before birth, he explained, “All human beings bear the image of God, and their lives cannot be destroyed without effacing his glory.”

On Wednesday, February 28, several hundred people demonstrated their disapproval in front of the Alabama State House in Montgomery, the state capital. They included women with babies in their arms, carrying signs reading “I became a mother thanks to IVF”; doctors showing photos of children born through in vitro fertilization; and patients in the midst of the procedure and panicked by the threat to artificial reproduction techniques.

A nationwide uproar

Inside, elected members of the Health Committee were examining a bill urgently introduced by a group of Republicans to protect clinics and doctors from lawsuits that could result from the Supreme Court’s decision. The ruling virtually put an end to the practice of in vitro fertilization in the state. The University of Alabama at Birmingham has put its IVF program on hold, as have three private clinics. Some medical transport companies refuse to move patient’s frozen embryos out of the state, for fear of legal action if they are destroyed.

This debate comes as 14 states began, in 2023, to study the codification of the concept of “legal personality of the fetus” (adopted by Georgia and Missouri). Nearly 2% of women between the ages of 15 and 44 have already used this method, according to an analysis by the Pew Research Center based on data from the National Center for Health Statistics.

Caught between their constituents, a majority of whom approve of assisted reproduction, and the anti-abortion conservatives they need so badly at election time, most Republican leaders have backtracked. They’re worried not only about the electoral consequences but also about the legal ones, as treating embryos as children would open up an arsenal of complicated issues relating to taxes, child support and even kidnapping.

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