Welcome everyone to the beat. I'm Ari Melber and I want to tell you here it is

February 2024. As we start the show here our top story in 2024 is about a crackdown on women's rights that could be from decades back and

on parents' rights and on a lot of people.

So let me walk you through why this is our top story right now.

A few years ago, few might have been able to predict what is

happening in America right now. But it is happening. Tonight we can report a university has

been forced to halt in vitro fertilization or IVF procedures

after local judges ruled that they will treat as a legal matter those frozen embryos as quote children. The judges say the

embryos feature the image of God. That's a quote from the ruling. This came

out of Alabama where two clinics in the University of Alabama are now halting those IVF procedures.

The new court ruling suggests that the people involved could even be prosecuted.

That ruling like a long wave of Republican anti-choice measures comes out of the Supreme Court overturning 50 years of precedent in Roe v. Wade.

And we'll return to that in a moment.

The ruling sending shock waves across the nation as parents, doctors and legislators see

this Republican effort to limit rights, to limit medical choice and now potentially interfere with family planning techniques, procedures,

and efforts by parents who want to have kids.

Remember, amidst all this is a crackdown on parents who are trying to have

children. Now an attorney with the Center for reproductive rights does know with

regard to this ruling it does not appear to automatically create quote

criminal liability for IVF providers in the practice of IVF or the

creation of those embryos.

The legally extreme ruling could ultimately be paired back on appeal.

...