Team,

Disturbing news: the Alabama Supreme Court has issued a ruling stating that frozen embryos are children.

This ruling is extremely alarming. It undermines peoples’ ability to make decisions about their own family planning, including what to do with frozen embryos created via IVF. Some clinics have already stopped providing IVF services since the ruling, and other providers may follow or leave Alabama altogether due to fear of liability. This is what we’re seeing with abortion bans as well—doctors are fleeing states because their professions are being targeted with extreme civil and criminal penalties.

Since Roe v. Wade was overturned, the anti-choice movement has been relentless in their attacks on reproductive health care—this is just their latest tactic, and it's working. At the Center for Reproductive Rights, we are doubling down on the fight against this kind of extremist ideology.

The ruling in Alabama runs counter to the very practice of IVF, which in most cases includes fertilizing multiple eggs and determining—between the doctor and patient—which embryo may have the best chance of survival once implanted. The consequences of this ruling could have disastrous consequences for the use of IVF—a science many people rely on to build their families.

Our team is working to advocate for laws and policies to ensure that individuals seeking to start a family have equitable and non-discriminatory access to assisted reproduction like IVF. Thanks to our work, 1.4 billion people worldwide since 2021 have stronger legal protections for assisted reproduction. We need your help to continue this important work.

With politicians at the helm instead of doctors, reproductive health care is in crisis. We’ll keep you updated on this ruling and its implications.

Onward,

Karla Torres
Senior Counsel, U.S. Human Rights

P.S. Text "JOIN" to REPRO (73776) to receive real-time updates on reproductive health care access.
 

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