CNA Staff, Feb 28, 2024 / 17:05 pm
Republicans in both chambers of the Alabama Legislature are introducing bills that would shield clinics from civil and criminal liability when destroying human embryos during the process of in vitro fertilization (IVF).
The legislation comes after the Alabama Supreme Court ruled 8-1 that the Wrongful Death of a Minor Act applies to “all children, born and unborn,” including human embryos. In 2018, Alabama voters approved a constitutional amendment via a referendum that affirmed “the sanctity of unborn life and the rights of unborn children.”
Lawmakers intend to bypass the Supreme Court’s decision by providing clinics immunity from criminal prosecution and civil litigation when providing IVF services. This applies in all cases, except when there is an intentional “act of omission” that is unrelated to IVF services. The bills were introduced on Tuesday, Feb. 27.
IVF is a fertility treatment in which doctors fuse sperm and eggs to create human embryos and implant them in the mother’s womb without a sexual act. Embryos that are intended to be implanted at a later date are frozen. Undesired embryos are routinely destroyed or used for scientific research, which kills those preborn children.