The hospital system involved in the controversial Alabama Supreme Court ruling on in vitro fertilization, or IVF, announced on Thursday that it would suspend all IVF procedures.
The Center for Reproductive Medicine at Mobile Infirmary is “pausing IVF treatments to prepare embryos for transfer” effective Feb. 24, it said in a press statement sent to the Washington Examiner.
President of Infirmary Health Mark Nix said that “the recent Alabama Supreme Court decision has sadly left us with no choice but to pause IVF treatments for patients.”
On Wednesday, the University of Alabama at Birmingham health system announced it was suspending IVF treatments, saying it “must evaluate the potential that our patients and our physicians could be prosecuted criminally or face punitive damages for following the standard of care for IVF treatments.”
The three couples who filed suit against Infirmary Health were IVF patients at the center between 2013 and 2016. Each couple agreed to have their remaining embryos stored in the hospital’s “cryogenic nursery.” In December 2020, a patient at the hospital wandered into the nursery through an unsecured door and accidentally destroyed five embryos belonging to the couples.
The couples sued under Alabama’s Wrongful Death of a Minor Act of 1872, which the court ruled in 2011 and 2012 applies to unborn children. The “Sanctity of Unborn Life” provision of Alabama’s constitution also requires the court to interpret statutes that protect the lives of born and unborn children equally.
Although the court’s decision does not explicitly prohibit IVF treatment, its ruling that defines frozen embryos as “extrauterine children” does raise the burdens for facilities seeking to provide IVF services, considering the costs of extra safety measures.
Justice Jay Mitchell, for the majority opinion, argued that the practical concerns for IVF patients were “policy-focused arguments [that] belong before the Legislature, not this Court.”
“It is not the role of this Court to craft a new limitation based on our own view of what is or is not wise public policy,” Mitchell wrote.
RESOLVE: The National Infertility Association condemned the court’s decision, calling it “cruel” and “devastating.”
“Now, less than a week after the Alabama Supreme Court’s devastating ruling, Alabamans in the midst of seeking treatment have had their lives, their hopes and dreams, crushed,” RESOLVE CEO Barbara Collura said Wednesday.
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“We understand the burden this places on deserving families who want to bring babies into this world and who have no alternative options for conceiving,” Nix said.
A spokesperson for Infirmary Health told the Washington Examiner that they were unwilling to comment “pending litigation.”