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Months after court ruling, commission to study IVF issues in Alabama hasn’t formed
Published by Alabama Reflector. Read the full article.
When the Republican-dominated Legislature passed a bill in March to protect in vitro fertilization (IVF) services in the state, legislators said they planned to form a commission to study the issue further.
Almost three months later, that commission has yet to form.
“I don’t really have an update right now. I think over the next couple of weeks, we’re going to actually tour some IVF centers and get more information,” said Rep. Terri Collins, R-Decatur, who carried the bill in the House, after the bill’s passage in the Senate.
Following a Feb. 16 Alabama Supreme Court decision that declared frozen embryos children, the Legislature moved quickly to protect IVF clinics from criminal and civil liability. After critics called the legislation a “Band-Aid fix,” Republican legislators signaled they would study the issue further.
The court’s ruling stemmed from a lawsuit regarding the unauthorized destruction of frozen embryos at a Mobile clinic in 2020. It decided that the parents could seek damages under an 1872 state law for the deaths of their children.
Following the ruling, several IVF programs closed due to legal risks to patients and providers. The Mobile health care system that provided in vitro fertilization (IVF) care said the clinic will stop the services at the end of the year, citing lawsuits over the fertility treatment.
