An explosive device was detonated outside the Alabama Attorney General's Office in downtown Montgomery early Saturday morning, Attorney General Steve Marshall said in a statement Monday.
The explosion, which Marshall said caused no injuries, comes after a recent Alabama Supreme Court ruling that frozen embryos are legally considered children, forcing IVF donors and families seeking treatment to suffer. It comes a day after Marshall announced he would not press charges.
The statement did not say whether there was any damage from the explosion, whether the motive for the act was known, or whether there were any suspects. A spokeswoman for the attorney general's office said Monday that she could not provide more information beyond the statement and referred further questions to the Alabama Department of Law Enforcement.
The Alabama Department of Law Enforcement, which is investigating the explosion, said it received a report of a suspicious package Monday morning near the intersection of Washington Avenue and South Bainbridge Street in Montgomery.
“The suspicious package turned out to be an explosive device that detonated in the early morning hours of Saturday, February 24,” authorities said in a statement Monday night. “As the investigation is ongoing, no further information is available.”
The Alabama Supreme Court's decision, handed down earlier this month in an appellate case brought by a couple whose embryos were destroyed at a Mobile fertility clinic, shocked the reproductive health world and resulted in the death of a new Alabama parent. This raises questions about infertility treatment for people. raises complex legal issues. This has also caused some clinics in the state to suspend IVF treatment, leaving many women at a loss.
On Friday, the attorney general's office moved to allay some of those fears. Marshall “does not intend to use the recent Alabama Supreme Court decision as a basis for prosecuting IVF families or providers,” the agency's chief counsel Katherine Robertson said in a statement.
