IVF advocates have lobbied the Alabama Legislature to act quickly to protect access to fertility treatment in Alabama.
Both chambers of the Alabama Legislature have voted to approve a bill that protects doctors from prosecution if they damage or destroy embryos created during in vitro fertilization (IVF).
The House and Senate must vote on a unified bill before it becomes law.
This follows a state Supreme Court ruling that says frozen embryos have the same rights as children and can be held liable if they are destroyed.
The ruling caused legal headaches for clinics, many of which discontinued their services.
On Thursday, the Alabama House of Representatives passed a bill that would provide legal immunity “for the death of or injury to embryos of any person or entity” responsible for providing IVF-related services.
Hours later, the state Senate passed a similar bill.
The unified bill could be voted on by both chambers by next Wednesday, then sent to Gov. Kay Ivey for approval.
Both bills were introduced less than two weeks after the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos are considered children, a decision that drew pushback from medical experts, IVF mothers, and reproductive advocacy groups. was there.
Opinions are also divided among the state's devout Christians, with some praising the bill as a “defense of beautiful life” and others worried it would lead to restrictions on infertile people who want to have children. There are some people.
In response, lawmakers are scrambling to protect access to fertility treatment. It also sparked political debate about women's reproductive rights and how the beginning of life is defined by the state.
The Republican-controlled House passed the bill by a 94-6 vote after about three hours of debate, during which some lawmakers threatened to undermine Alabama's status as a pro-life state. expressed concern that it may be
Republican Rep. Mark Gidley said he was concerned the bill was a “convenient reaction” to the court's ruling and said it was important the law recognized that frozen embryos are human lives.
Another, Ernie Yarbaugh, asked, “Is it possible to do IVF in a pro-life way, treating the embryo as a child?”
Other lawmakers, like Democratic Rep. Mary Moore, disagreed with the court's ruling and said it's important to protect IVF treatments because they help many families who were unable to have children. said.
A similar debate occurred in the state Senate. One of the senators, Republican Larry Stutz, described the issue as a “moral quandary” but said the embryos discarded from IVF are “a small percentage” of those that are used or stored. He pointed out that.
MPs also heard from women undergoing infertility treatment, including one who told a House of Commons committee that she spent nearly $400,000 (about £317,000) on IVF and that the money was wasted. He testified that he hoped it would not happen.
Republican Rep. Terry Collins, who originally introduced the House bill, said his goal was to “at least keep clinics open and families moving forward” while lawmakers work on long-term solutions. Stated.
“This solution is to open clinics quickly, and that's what we're trying to do,” she said.
