Critics are blasting the Alabama Supreme Court for ruling that frozen embryos can be considered children under state law, which some believe will threaten the practice of in vitro fertilization (IVF).
In a statement obtained by theGrio, Elisabeth Smith, director of state policy and advocacy at the Center for Reproductive Rights, said that the court’s ruling is “alarming.”
“It undermines people’s ability to make decisions about their own family planning via IVF,” said Smith. “To enact legislation granting legal personhood to embryos could have disastrous consequences for the use of IVF – a science many people rely on to build their families.”
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Alabama told theGrio in a statement that the state’s Supreme Court “grossly overstepped its role by classifying frozen embryos…as children.”
The organization added that the Alabama justices “crossed a critical boundary to assign personhood to something created in a lab that exists outside of a human body.”
Nourbese Flint, president of All* Above All, told theGrio that the Alabama ruling “signals a disturbing and dangerous development in [the court’s] attempt to control people’s decisions.”
According to the Pew Research Center, Black women make up 26% of the population of women who engage in IVF treatments. Flint told theGrio that she believes both Black and brown women are “more than likely going to be targets of criminalization” following the ruling.
“Alabama officials and prosecutors are notorious for punishing people for the outcomes of their pregnancies,” said Flint.
On Feb. 16, the state’s high court controversially ruled that frozen embryos are children, and if anyone were to destroy them, they could be held liable for wrongful death.
The court’s decision reversed the lower court ruling that dismissed wrongful death lawsuits brought by three couples who underwent IVF treatment at a…
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