President Joe Biden denounced the Alabama Supreme Court’s decision on the personhood of embryos during the State of the Union address on Thursday, saying that the federal Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to overturn Roe v. Wade opened the door for the controversial state ruling.
“The Alabama Supreme Court shut down [in vitro fertilization] treatments across the state, unleashed by the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade,” said Biden.
Here’s the background context:
Last month, the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that embryos frozen for IVF could legally be classified as “extrauterine children” in the context of the state’s Wrongful Death of a Minor Act.
The case was initially filed as a wrongful death suit from three families whose embryos were destroyed without their consent due to a patient unaffiliated with the reproductive health facility wandering into the cryogenics lab where the embryos were frozen and accidentally destroying them.
Legal experts have told the Washington Examiner that Roe v. Wade was not a factor in the Alabama decision from a jurisprudence perspective.
“There are states that have banned embryo-destructive research for a long time [under] Roe and before Dobbs,” O. Carter Snead of The University of Notre Dame Law School previously told the Washington Examiner. “There was never a suggestion that there was a constitutional right to IVF.”
The majority opinion for the Alabama decision did not hinge on federal abortion law and only made three footnote references to the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case that overturned the federal constitutional protections for abortion, returning policy jurisdiction back to the states. The footnotes were in relation to the historical context of rules with respect to pregnancy.
In the speech, Biden referenced the experience of Alabama IVF patient Latorya Beasley, who was in the process of hormonal treatments to prepare for the embryo transplant procedure for her second child.
“She was told her dream would have to wait,” said Biden, referring to the abrupt pause in her treatment plan. “What her family has gone through should never have happened.”
Although three fertility clinics paused all IVF treatments due to the ruling, the text of the ruling itself does not prohibit the practice of IVF. Rather, it prevents embryos from being destroyed because they are recognized as persons under the law, which reproductive endocrinologists identify as against the current standards of care for the procedure.
Biden further called on Congress to enact federal protections for IVF.
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“To my friends across the aisle, don’t keep families waiting any longer. Guarantee the right to IVF nationwide!” said Biden.
Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS) blocked Democratic efforts last month to pass a bill by unanimous consent protecting access to assistive reproductive technology, including IVF, citing the potential for abuse.
