Anti-abortion judges support keeping children in the freezer

Courtesy of commentarion Rob in CT: The Alabama Supreme Court demonstrates that once people decide to interfere with reproductive rights, they can’t stop, won’t stop.

In a controversial opinion that could end the practice of in vitro fertilization in the state, the Alabama Supreme Court on Friday declared that frozen embryos are “children” entitled to the same legal rights as other “unborn children.” 

The opinion was issued in a case involving the accidental destruction of several embryos at a Mobile fertility clinic, The Center for Reproductive Medicine, when a wandering patient entered the area where they were stored and dropped several containers. Three couples whose embryos were destroyed sued the Center, but a circuit court judge threw out the lawsuit because the embryos were not covered under Alabama’s “Wrongful Death of a Minor Act.” 

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However, writing for the court’s majority, Justice Jay Mitchell reversed the lower court, opened up several new and creative avenues for future lawsuits and likely made IVF treatments in Alabama unaffordable. Writing in a concurring opinion, ALSC Chief Justice Tom Parker turned the opinion into a citation of Biblical scripture. 

The American Society for Reproductive Medicine spelled out the ruling’s effect on IVF in Alabama.

If the policy outcomes mandated under this decision stand, the consequences will be profound. Modern fertility care will be unavailable to the people of Alabama, needlessly blocking them from building the families they want. Young physicians will choose not to come to the state for training or to begin their practice. Existing clinics will be forced to choose between providing sub-optimal patient care or shutting their doors.

Basically, the Republican view of medical care is that if you don’t want the state to interfere with your medical care, you should pull on your bootstraps until you become as cishet boy or man.

Expect more states that have passed laws that prevent people who don’t want to be pregnant from receiving appropriate medical care to create laws that prevent people who do want to be pregnant from receiving appropriate medical care. Republicans have floated bills that would make IVF impossible by banning the disposal of unwanted embryos.

So far as I can tell the court did not address the legality of keeping children in freezers. But soon enough some freak will claim that the millions of “cryo-kids” at IVF clinics have implantation rights.