Explosive device detonates outside Alabama Attorney General’s office

An explosive device was detonated early Saturday outside the Alabama attorney general’s office in downtown Montgomery, Attorney General Steve Marshall said. in a statement on Monday.

The explosion, which Mr. Marshall said did not injure anyone, occurred a day after he announced that he did not intend to prosecute IVF providers or families seeking treatment following a recent Alabama Supreme Court ruling that frozen embryos are legally children are considered.

The statement did not say whether the explosion caused damage, whether the motive for the act was known or whether there were any suspects.

“The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency will be leading the investigation and we urge anyone with information to contact them immediately,” Marshall said in the statement.

A spokeswoman for the attorney general’s office said Monday she could provide no other information beyond the statement and referred further questions to the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency. The agency did not immediately respond to a phone call and email requesting comment late Monday afternoon.

The Alabama Supreme Court’s ruling — issued earlier this month in appeals brought by couples whose embryos were destroyed at a Mobile fertility clinic — has shocked the reproductive medicine world and cast doubt on fertility care for parents-to-be in Alabama and raise complex legal questions. It has also led to some clinics in the state halting IVF treatments and leaving many women in limbo.

On Friday, the attorney general’s office took action to address some of those concerns. Mr. Marshall “does not intend to use the Alabama Supreme Court’s recent decision as a basis for prosecuting IVF families or providers,” Katherine Robertson, the firm’s lead attorney, said in a statement.