The fragile future of IVF in Alabama
Post Reports
The Washington Post
4.4 • 5.1K Ratings
🗓️ 22 February 2024
⏱️ 19 minutes
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Summary
On Friday, the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos are legally people and that someone can be held liable for destroying them. Today on “Post Reports,” how the first-of-its-kind ruling has complicated women’s health care in the state and its implications across the country.
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In Alabama, doctors and patients are scrambling to understand the implications of a recent state supreme court decision that ruled frozen embryos are legally people. A number of in-vitro fertilization (IVF) clinics in the state have paused their services in light of the court’s decision. The ruling has the potential to impact hundreds of thousands of people across the state who depend on IVF treatments.
The White House decried the ruling, and legal experts have warned that it could empower the “personhood movement,” which asserts unborn children should be granted legal rights starting at conception. National health reporter Sabrina Malhi joins “Post Reports” to break down the ruling, what the immediate effect has been, and what precedent this ruling sets in the ongoing battle over women’s reproductive rights.
In other news: We’re six weeks away from the total solar eclipse traversing North America on April 8. Check out The Post’s guide to find the best place for cloud-free eclipse viewing.
Today’s show was produced by Sabby Robinson with help from Peter Bresnan. It was mixed by Sean Carter. It was edited by Lucy Perkins.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | A recent ruling by the Alabama Supreme Court could change access to reproductive health care in the state. |
| 0:10.0 | The justices the same legal standing as children who are born. |
| 0:23.4 | Sabrina Molly is a national health reporter at the post and covers maternal and |
| 0:31.7 | children's health. |
| 0:33.0 | Legal experts have said this opens up a can of worms for people who are undergoing IVF treatments |
| 0:39.7 | and what that means for their frozen embryos and their whole fertility process. |
| 0:44.0 | IVF is short for in vitro fertilization. |
| 0:48.0 | It's a procedure that people turn to when they're struggling with infertility. |
| 0:52.0 | Specialists retrieve eggs from a patient |
| 0:55.0 | and fertilize them with sperm outside the body |
| 0:58.0 | in order to form embryos |
| 1:00.0 | that can later be transferred to the patient's uterus. |
| 1:03.0 | The procedure is difficult and expensive, |
| 1:06.0 | so multiple embryos are often frozen at the same time. |
| 1:10.0 | Sometimes embryos are destroyed in the process. |
| 1:13.6 | But the justices say that those destroyed embryos |
| 1:16.7 | could be the subject of wrongful death lawsuits. |
| 1:19.9 | Because of this Alabama ruling, |
| 1:21.5 | Sabrina says that clinics are scrambling to figure out how to help patients who want to have kids without risking legal action. |
| 1:28.0 | Two of the state's eat IVF clinics have already paused the procedure. |
| 1:33.0 | They're unsure of how to proceed with IVF treatments, |
| 1:37.0 | how to proceed with freezing embryos, |
... |
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