Jacob Francy, '26
On February 19, the Alabama State Supreme Court ruled in a case that frozen embryos should be considered children, helping protect the state’s illegalization of abortion without any exception for incest or rape. This has brought utter chaos on a national scale. In vitro fertilization (IVF), the process of mixing the egg and sperm outside of the body to create a pregnancy, has been the spotlight of this case. With this ruling, it outlaws the handling of embryos outside the womb.
One in six American families struggles with infertility, so how will roughly 20 million households find a way to conceive of their own? Alabama is taking away a precious way of still being able to have biological children: a devastating blow to families across the state dealing with such a sad situation. According to the Pew Research Center, 16% of U.S. pregnancies have used artificial insemination or in vitro fertilization. Taking this away from people who have no other way to have a child of their own seems cruel, to say the least.
Alabama U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville was asked about the abolition of IVF in his state, and he answered as if he didn’t know what it even was, “I support that people wanna have IVF,” he told an ABC reporter. His voice rose a bit at the end of his sentence as if he were asking the reporter to confirm that he was even talking about the correct topic. “The state’s getting ready to pass a law,” he continued haltingly. “It’s gonna be ok. They’re gonna pass it, then it’s, then it’s, then it’s…gonna be positive.” He later posted on his social media that he fully supports a new Alabama bill that would legalize IVF and IVF patients.
A bill in the U.S. Senate was introduced to protect IVF for all Americans nationwide, which was supported by all Democrats and most Republicans. But, the chair of the committee the bill was placed into, Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS), rejected the bill upon arrival. This means it will not pass, even though the vast majority of Americans support it. This is a serious issue. At what point will the US citizen draw a line when their home states are taking away the right to make a healthcare decision over one’s own body?