Republican Alabama state senator introduces bill to protect IVF
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[February 28, 2024]
(Reuters) - A Republican Alabama state senator on Tuesday filed a
bill aimed at protecting the IVF industry after the state Supreme Court
ruled that frozen embryos should be considered children, prompting at
least three Alabama providers to halt the fertility procedure.
State Senator Tim Melson has said he hopes the bill to protect IVF
providers from both criminal charges and civil lawsuits will pass the
Senate and move to the state House by Thursday, according to local news
reports. A Senate committee must first review the bill.
The Feb. 16 Alabama Supreme Court ruling left unclear how to legally
store, transport and use embryos, and some IVF patients sought to move
their frozen embryos out of Alabama.
IVF, or in vitro fertilization, involves combining eggs and sperm in a
laboratory dish to create an embryo for couples having difficulty
conceiving.
Republicans nationwide have scrambled to contain backlash from the
decision by the Alabama Supreme Court, whose elected judges are all
Republican. Democrats have seized on it as more evidence that
reproductive rights are under assault.
Republicans control the Alabama state legislature.
A Florida lawmaker confirmed Tuesday she had paused efforts to pass a
bill that would have protected "unborn" children, which some worry could
expose the state's in vitro fertilization (IVF) clinics to lawsuits like
the Alabama case.
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A medical lab technologist operates an embryo vitrification during
an intra cytoplasmic sperm injection process (ICSI) at a laboratory
in Paris, France, September 13, 2019. REUTERS/Christian
Hartmann/File Photo
Alabama House Minority Leader
Anthony Daniels, a Democrat, filed a more expansive bill to protect
the IVF industry last week. The Daniels measure would prevent "any
fertilized human egg or human embryo that exists outside of a human
uterus" from being treated as "an unborn child or human being for
any purpose under state law." His proposal also awaits a committee
hearing.
The Alabama high court issued its ruling in response to three
families' lawsuits against a fertility clinic and hospital for
failing to properly safeguard their frozen embryos, resulting in
their destruction when a patient improperly accessed them.
The ruling was based on the state's 2018 Sanctity of Life Amendment
approved by voters that supports "the sanctity of unborn life and
the rights of unborn children."
On Friday, the Alabama Attorney General's office said it had "no
intention" of prosecuting IVF providers or families who use their
services, which involve creating embryos by mixing eggs and sperm in
a lab dish.
(Reporting by Julia Harte; Editing by Donna Bryson and Lisa
Shumaker)
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