Alabama Republicans advanced and passed legislation to protect individuals involved with in-vitro fertilization, also known as IVF, from criminal prosecution.
The legislation to protect the fertility procedure, in which a sperm and egg are artificially joined outside of the womb and implanted into the uterus of a woman, provides “civil and criminal immunity for death or damage to an embryo” for anyone who provides or receives IVF services. Republican lawmakers in the Alabama House and Alabama Senate overwhelmingly passed the bill, which Alabama Republican Governor Kay Ivey signed on Wednesday.
Ivey admitted in a statement that IVF is a “complex issue” but contended that the move would “foster a culture of life” by ensuring Alabama parents could access fertility procedures. Many object to IVF since the process typically involves discarding, freezing, or selectively aborting fertilized embryos which are deemed unwanted or unviable by parents and doctors.
Alabama Republican State Representative Ernie Yarbrough introduced an amendment to withhold immunity from anyone who “intentionally causes” the death of an embryo, yet sixty-five fellow lawmakers voted against the amendment. Another measure filed by Alabama Republican State Representative to delay the vote by three months in order to further study the issue of IVF also failed, with seventy-one lawmakers likewise opposing that amendment.
The effort to legally protect IVF comes after the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos are indeed children who can be protected by wrongful death laws, a decision which followed the accidental destruction of embryos at an IVF clinic. Alabama Supreme Court Justice Jay Mitchell wrote in the majority opinion that children should be protected “without exception based on developmental stage, physical location, or any other ancillary characteristics.”
Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Tom Parker noted in a concurring opinion that the Bible and the historic Western legal tradition affirm the value of preborn children. “Human life cannot be wrongfully destroyed without incurring the wrath of a holy God, who views the destruction of his image as an affront to himself,” Parker contended. “Even before birth, all human beings bear the image of God, and their lives cannot be destroyed without effacing his glory.”
Various Republican members of Congress have voiced support for protecting IVF at the federal level. The controversy over IVF comes shortly before the presidential election, provoking unease among Republicans as abortion emerges as a motivator for Democratic voter turnout.
