Alabama Lawmakers Advance Bills To Shield IVF Clinics
Alabama's House and Senate both passed similar bills Thursday that will be swapped and debated next week. The measures aim to address fallout from the state's Supreme Court ruling granting "personhood" to frozen embryos. News outlets also examine the reverberations from that case outside of Alabama.
The Wall Street Journal:
Alabama Senate, House Pass Bills To Protect IVF
Both chambers of the Alabama Legislature passed bills intended to protect in vitro fertilization providers after the state Supreme Court ruled that embryos qualify as children. The Republican-sponsored bills were fast-tracked through the Senate and the House this week. The companion bills, introduced Tuesday, grant civil and criminal immunity to those providing IVF treatments. (Otis and Ansari, 2/29)
Al.com:
Alabama Lawmakers Remove Automatic Repeal Date From Bill To Provide Immunity To IVF Clinics
State lawmakers scrambling to provide legal protection for in vitro fertilization clinics passed bills in the Alabama House and Senate on Thursday after removing automatic repeal dates that were in earlier versions of the legislation. One of the two bills could become law as soon as next Wednesday. (Cason, 2/29)
The 19th:
Could The Alabama Supreme Court Ruling On IVF Impact Access In Other States?
An Alabama Supreme Court has effectively ended access in the state to IVF, leaving families navigating infertility in limbo. Outside of Alabama, IVF patients have begun to question the security of their own treatment. Amanda Zurawski, the lead plaintiff in a case challenging Texas’ abortion bans, said this week she is moving her frozen embryos in case her state is next to curb access to IVF. (Luthra, 2/29)
KFF Health News:
KFF Health News' 'What The Health?': Alabama’s IVF Ruling Still Making Waves
Reverberations from the Alabama Supreme Court’s first-in-the-nation ruling that embryos are legally children continued this week, both in the states and in Washington. As Alabama lawmakers scrambled to find a way to protect in vitro fertilization services without directly denying the “personhood” of embryos, lawmakers in Florida postponed a vote on the state’s own “personhood” law. And in Washington, Republicans worked to find a way to satisfy two factions of their base: those who support IVF and those who believe embryos deserve full legal rights. (2/29)
Also —
KCRA:
Lincoln Woman's Last Embryo Stuck In Alabama After IVF Ruling
Heather Maurer moved to Lincoln, California, from Columbus, Mississippi, two years ago while she was pregnant with her now 19-month-old son.Her husband is in the Air Force and got short-notice orders to report to the Golden State. They had two months to move. Before the move, they had been referred to the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) for fertility treatments. After years of struggling to conceive, the couple began IVF. "We retrieved 11 eggs and seven fertilized and three developed into embryos," Maurer told KCRA 3. "After genetic testing, only two very viable." One of those two is her son Maximus. The other is still frozen at UAB. (Hope, 2/26)
CNN:
Without IVF, This Alabama Uterine Transplant Patient Loses Her Hope For A Second Baby
Time is running out for Elizabeth Goldman to have one more baby with the uterus she received in a transplant two years ago. Her IVF treatments were halted after a state Supreme Court ruling last month, and it’s a delay she says her family can’t afford. When she was 14, she was told that she had been born without a uterus and that she would never get pregnant. “I was told that it would basically be impossible,” said Goldman, who has a condition called Mayer-Rokitansky-Küster-Hauser syndrome that affects the reproductive system. “I always dreamed of carrying my own baby, so I was completely heartbroken.” (Musa and Rosales, 3/1)
USA Today:
When IVF Felt Hopeful, Couple Lost Embryos. Here's Who They Blame.
The tears were automatic. Kearsten Walden couldn't hold them back when the doctor called on Thanksgiving morning to say she'd lost the last of her six embryos. She'd already experienced so much loss during a long journey with infertility. Doctors couldn't tell the Norfolk, Virginia, woman what went wrong. Kearsten and her husband Zach, both 39, later learned they were not alone, other couples undergoing in vitro fertilization at the same fertility clinic had also inexplicably lost their embryos. (Rodriguez, 2/27)
