Abbott has expressed his general support for artificial insemination, but has declined to call for his own law to protect access in his state of Texas. However, he wanted to ensure that some people had access to IVF, citing former US President Donald Trump's stance.
Trump himself spoke for the first time on Friday and said he would “strongly support the availability of in vitro fertilization.” He called on Alabama lawmakers to preserve access to treatment. On his online service Truth Social, he wrote that they wanted to “make it easier for moms and dads to have kids, not harder.” It was also heard from the US Senate that candidates should build on the “overwhelming public support for in vitro fertilization.”
Judgment based on the 1872 law
The debate over artificial insemination arose after the Alabama Supreme Court ruled more than a week ago that frozen embryos should be considered children, based on an 1872 law. The case in question was that three couples who lost embryos frozen in an accident at a storage facility can sue the fertility clinic and hospital for the wrongful death of a minor child.
A lower court ruled that frozen embryos could not be considered “persons” or “children”. The Supreme Court overturned the ruling by seven votes to two, saying the more than 150-year-old law applied to “all children without restrictions.” Although most judges based their decision on the law, Judge Tom Parker repeatedly cited the Bible to justify his decision.
Portal/Elizabeth Frantz Trump urged Alabama lawmakers to preserve access to IVF treatment
Disagreement among Republicans
Just how divided Republicans are in the debate was also demonstrated by the member of the US House of Representatives from Florida, Byron Donalds. He told NBC on Sunday that he agreed with Alabama's ruling that embryos are already children. A little later, however, he said he supported artificial insemination “100 percent,” as the New York Times (“NYT”) wrote.
Trump's Republican challenger, Nikki Haley, also supported the decision last week, but later backed off and said Alabama needed to “go back and look at the law.” According to the BBC, Haley used IVF treatments to have her two children.
Abortion opponents are also divided
And Republican opponents of abortion also appeared divided Thursday at the Conservative Political Action Conference, one of the largest annual gatherings of Republican voters.
Jessica Andreae, a senior activist with the Christian organization Pro-Life Ministries, told the BBC that she agreed with the Alabama Supreme Court that embryos should be considered human life. However, for her it is “a very complex subject”, as a friend of hers also had two children through in vitro fertilization.
Judgment difficult to understand
For many supporters of the pro-life movement, the ruling is particularly difficult to understand because it would deprive many families who want children of the opportunity to become parents. If many clinics refused to perform artificial insemination for fear of legal consequences, fewer children would be born.
In vitro fertilization is a difficult and time-consuming treatment in which a woman's eggs are artificially fertilized with male sperm in a laboratory to create a microscopic embryo. The fertilized embryo is then transferred to the woman's uterus, where it can induce pregnancy – although a positive outcome is not guaranteed.
AP/Kim Chandler Since the Alabama Supreme Court decision, there has been a heated debate over women's rights in the United States
Connection to abortion decision
The Alabama decision is also related to the 2022 ruling by the very conservative, Trump-led U.S. Supreme Court, which overturned its landmark 1973 Roe vs. Wade ruling. Wade, who enshrined women's constitutional right to abortion.
Since then, the right to abortion is no longer guaranteed in the Constitution and the decision rests with the states. Alabama is one of about two dozen states that have since banned or severely restricted abortion. Since then, anti-abortion activists have also gained a lot of momentum.
Criticism of Democrats
Criticism of the verdict also came from US President Joe Biden last week. Interference with women’s ability to make their own family planning decisions is “outrageous and unacceptable”. Vice President Kamala Harris also criticized the decision in Alabama, also in connection with the Supreme Court's decision in Washington on the abortion ban.
The Democratic governor of Michigan, Gretchen Whitmer, was more specific to CNN, naming a culprit: “We have always known that with Donald Trump's appointments to the Supreme Court (…) a woman's ability to make her own decisions about her body (…) is in danger,” she said. This decision by Alabama is therefore a natural reaction to that.