Alabama Supreme Court rules that frozen embryos outside the womb are children
The lawsuit involved embryos stored at a fertility clinic in Mobile. According to the opinion, in 2020 a patient “managed to wander” into the fertility clinic and remove several frozen embryos from the nursery, according to the lawsuit. The patient dropped the frozen embryos to the floor, resulting in their loss.
Read more at 19th News
Conservatives Are Already Using Alabama’s “Frozen Embryos Are Children” Ruling to Go After Abortion
In a deeply disturbing concurring opinion, Alabama Supreme Court chief justice Tom Parker quoted the Bible to argue that frozen embryos cannot be destroyed without someone being punished by God. “Human life cannot be wrongfully destroyed without incurring the wrath of a holy God, who views the destruction of His image as an affront to Himself,” he wrote. “Even before birth, all human beings bear the image of God, and their lives cannot be destroyed without effacing his glory.”
Read more at Vanity Fair
Frozen embryos are “children,” according to Alabama’s Supreme Court
Barbara Collura, CEO of RESOLVE: The National Infertility Association, told USA Today that the ruling would likely halt most IVF work in Alabama. “This is exactly what we have been fearful of and worried about where it was heading,” Collura said. “We are extremely concerned that this is now going to happen in other states.”
But, the hypothetical risks don’t end there. Health advocates worry that the idea of personhood for an embryonic ball of a few cells could extend to pregnancy outcomes, such as miscarriages or use of contraceptives.
Read more at Ars Technica