Alabama House approves IVF protection bill as lawmakers rush to respond to state supreme court ruling

Washington — The Alabama House on Thursday overwhelmingly approved a bill that would provide legal protections to healthcare entities that provide in vitro fertilization services, as lawmakers took swift action to mitigate the backlash against a State Supreme Court decision that found frozen embryos can be considered children under state law.

The bill, introduced by state Rep. Terri Collins, a Republican, would extend civil and criminal immunity to providers of IVF services. It passed by a vote of 94 to 6 after several hours of debate.

Speaking on the House floor, Collins told her colleagues that the measure “will help us achieve our goal, which is to continue the process for those families going through in vitro fertilization.”

The bill now heads to the State Senate, which is debating Thursday its own version of the legislation protecting IVF services.

Alabama lawmakers moved to take up the separate plans amid widespread fury that arose after the Alabama Supreme Court ruled roughly two weeks ago that frozen embryos can be considered children under state law. The ruling stemmed from wrongful death lawsuits filed by three sets of parents whose frozen embryos were destroyed after a fertility clinic patient removed and then dropped several embryos in December 2020.

The state’s highest court concluded that an Alabama law first enacted in 1872 “applies to all unborn children, regardless of their location.” 

“Unborn children are ‘children’ under the Act, without exception based on developmental stage, physical location, or any other ancillary characteristics,” Justice Jay Mitchell wrote in the majority opinion, referencing Alabama’s Wrongful Death of a Minor Act.

The impacts of the decision were felt swiftly, as the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s Division of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility announced it would be pausing IVF treatments, citing the potential for criminal prosecution of its physicians and patients. Two more IVF providers paused services in the wake of the decision.

Advocates of IVF treatment rallied on the steps of the Alabama Legislature Wednesday as they pushed lawmakers to protect providers from prosecution.

At the federal level, Sen. Tammy Duckworth, an Illinois Democrat, took action Wednesday to pass legislation that would create federal protections for IVF access nationwide. But Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, a Mississippi Republican, blocked the bill, saying in remarks on the Senate floor that the proposal is a “vast overreach that is full of poison pills that go way too far.”