Alabama Republicans are trying to pass an IVF shield bill

Alabama lawmakers raced Wednesday to protect the routine practice of in vitro fertilization, focusing on mollifying families and fertility clinics alarmed by a recent state Supreme Court ruling that found that frozen embryos as children must be considered.

The lawmakers’ urgency underscores the imperative for Republicans, who have long maintained that life begins at conception — a tenet of their opposition to abortion — but must now reconcile that position with the reality of how IVF is practiced and the broad public support for it.

Republican leaders across the country have been quick to express support for IVF, with the party already struggling to counter backlash over the tough anti-abortion laws it supported in a crucial election year.

Former President Donald J. Trump, the frontrunner for the Republican nomination for president, called on the Alabama legislature to protect IVF treatment, while in Florida lawmakers this week set aside a bill that would allow civil lawsuits over the wrongful deaths of would make a fetus possible. .

In Alabama, top Republicans are now coalescing around a proposal that would provide immunity to IVF clinics barring any intentional destruction of embryos outside the usual medical process.

Facing an onslaught of anger from families pursuing the emotionally, financially and physically taxing in-vitro process, lawmakers have set a rapid timetable to pass the measure: It will be discussed in two separate committee hearings on Wednesday, with the goal to have the measure signed into law within a few days.

The Alabama measure – introduced separately in the House of Representatives and the Senate – appears designed to respond to widespread concerns about protecting access to reproductive medicine, while at the same time recognizing the accidental destruction of embryos that led to the death earlier this month ruling resulted.

unlike proposals introduced by Democrats in the state Legislature, the measure does not address whether frozen embryos should be considered unborn children, focusing instead on providing civil and criminal immunity for clinics, hospitals and health care providers.

The court’s ruling, which currently applies only to the families who sued over the destruction of their embryos at a mobile hospital in 2020, has raised national alarms for its explicit ruling that frozen embryos can be considered children . Many people feared that they could face criminal charges for disposing of embryos.

The court ruling prompted at least three major fertility clinics in Alabama to halt IVF treatments and left families across the state fearing it would cut them off from the opportunity to have children through IVF.

Sen. Tim Melson, who introduced the Republican proposal in the Senate, said the bill could achieve its intent of protecting IVF without having to say whether a frozen embryo is a child.

“Some people believe that we don’t need to go down that path when determining when life begins,” said Senator Melson, who has worked as an anesthesiologist and clinical researcher. told reporters in Alabama.

Attorney General Steve Marshall’s office has also said it will not prosecute couples who want to have a child through IVF.

Some lawmakers were skeptical that the measure could do enough without addressing the issue of personhood. Others have suggested that the question of whether a frozen embryo should be considered a child under Alabama law will require a constitutional amendment, which would require voters to weigh in separately from lawmakers.

“It seems like the plan is to go back in time, grant temporary immunity and try to forget this ever happened,” said Rep. Chris England, a Democrat, wrote on social media. “In the meantime, use the next year or so to figure out all the messy issues related to personality and define what life is and when it begins.”

“Hopefully, the temporary immunity will provide sufficient cover for the reopening of IVF clinics,” he added. “And by the way, pray that someone else of status doesn’t sue us in the meantime.”

Some in the Republican Party, especially those aligned with Christian theology that bans fertility treatments, have supported the court’s ruling and see the end of a constitutional right to abortion in 2022 as the beginning of a new fight over reproductive medicine.

“It is unacceptable that the Alabama Legislature has introduced a bill that does not meet pro-life expectations and does not respect the dignity of human life,” Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, a prominent political group, told abortion, in a joint statement with the Alabama Policy Institute. “Alabama can do both: allow the continued practice of IVF with care for those suffering from infertility, and respect the life created by IVF”

David W. Chen reporting contributed.