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Both chambers of the state's Republican-controlled legislature
passed the proposal protecting IVF providers from both criminal
charges and civil lawsuits after brief debates on Feb. 29.
In a statement on Wednesday night, Ivey said IVF was "a complex
issue, no doubt," and anticipated there would be more work to
come. "But right now, I am confident that this legislation will
provide the assurances our IVF clinics need and will lead them
to resume services immediately," she said.
Republicans nationwide have scrambled to contain backlash from a
Feb. 16 decision by the Alabama Supreme Court, whose elected
judges are all Republican, that left unclear how to legally
store, transport and use embryos, prompting some IVF patients to
consider moving their frozen embryos out of Alabama.
Democrats have seized on the Alabama court ruling as evidence
that reproductive rights are under assault.
IVF involves combining eggs and sperm in a laboratory dish to
create an embryo for couples having difficulty conceiving.
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 Unborn Life
Amendment approved by voters, which supports "the sanctity of
unborn life and the rights of unborn children."
The bill that Ivey signed would not necessarily mean IVF
providers could revert to business as usual, according to its
sponsor, Republican state Senator Tim Melson.
Replying to another senator's question about what Alabama IVF
providers could do with unused embryos under the proposed law,
Melson said during a state Senate debate on Thursday that, as a
result of the court ruling, some providers told him they planned
to start perpetually storing embryos that aren't implanted into
a uterus.
"That's going to probably become their policy," he said. "That's
not in effect, but that's what they're looking at doing."
(Reporting by Julia Harte; Editing by Donna Bryson and Jonathan
Oatis)
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