Two fertility clinics in Alabama suspended IVF services last month after the state Legislature passed a bill protecting doctors and clinics that discard embryos as part of routine IVF services. , is expected to reopen.
Dr. Janet Bouknight, an IVF provider at Alabama Fertility, said the bill “provides the protections needed to begin or indeed resume care.” Alabama Fertility suspended in vitro fertilization services on February 22 after the state Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos are unsafe. considered a fetus.
Bouknight said the clinic performs about 10 egg retrievals and 10 frozen embryo transfers a week, and about 40 patients did not receive promised treatment during the suspension of IVF services. There is a possibility that
Dr. Warner Hu, chair of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, said in a video statement that the bill “provides certain protections and therefore allows UAB to resume in vitro fertilization (also known as IVF) treatment.” “It will become.”
“As UAB moves to quickly resume IVF treatment, we will continue to evaluate developments and advocate for protections for IVF patients and providers.”
However, Mobile Clinic Reproductive Health Center, the fertility clinic involved in the lawsuit that led to the Alabama Supreme Court decision, said it would not resume in vitro fertilization services.
The center and its affiliated health system, Infirmary Health, said in a statement Thursday that it “will not reopen until there is legal clarity on the scope of the exemption under Alabama's new law.”
It added: “Currently, this law is insufficient to address the fertilized eggs currently stored in the state, and does not provide adequate guidance to doctors and fertility clinics seeking to help deserving families have children of their own.” We believe that challenges remain.”
After a Feb. 16 court ruling, IVF providers are now considering removing embryos, a common part of IVF, because some embryos have genetic abnormalities or are no longer needed. They were concerned about possible legal repercussions. In response, three clinics in Alabama temporarily suspended IVF services.
Lawmakers from both parties then called for legal safeguards to protect IVF providers in the state.
The bill, passed Wednesday night, would give civil and criminal immunity to doctors, clinics and other health care providers who provide IVF, and Gov. Kay Ivey announced the same just before midnight Wednesday. signed the bill.
Megan Cole, a patient at Alabama Fertility, was planning to start a family through a surrogate mother because a blood disorder makes it impossible for her to become pregnant. However, her scheduled embryo transfer surgery was canceled when the clinic suspended her IVF services.
Now, the clinic intends to start offering in vitro fertilization again and hopes to move forward with transplants, Cole said.
The past few weeks have been a “roller coaster of emotions,” she says. She went from being “completely devastated to feeling hopeful and now excited to continue her journey.”
But Cole worries about what the future holds for Alabama.
“At this point this is a win for us and a Band-Aid to get us back on track, but we still have plans to move the embryos out of state,” she said. “I don't trust what the state is trying to do, and I don't want my embryos to be kept forever or destroyed or allowed.”
The law passed Wednesday states that “no suit, proceeding, or criminal prosecution for damage or death of embryos shall be brought against any person or entity when providing or receiving services related to in vitro fertilization. shall not be filed or maintained.”
However, it does not specify whether frozen embryos created through in vitro fertilization have the same rights as children under state law. That has some legal experts and reproductive rights advocates worried that it doesn't go far enough.
“While we appreciate the action of the Alabama Legislature, this bill does not address the fundamental issue of the status of embryos as part of the IVF process, an issue that threatens the long-term standard of care for IVF patients. “No,” said CEO Barbara Collula. The solution: The National Fertility Association said in a statement:
The bill's Republican sponsors characterize it as a quick-fix solution to allow IVF clinics to resume normal operations.
Bouknight said lawmakers understand the “urgent need to fix the problem and get a lasting solution.”
The bill could make it easier for companies that store and ship embryos to operate in Alabama. At least one major embryo transport company, Cryoport, suspended operations there after the court ruling. The company did not respond to inquiries about whether it would resume service in Alabama.
Brad Senstra, CEO of Reprotech, a company that provides long-term embryo storage, said his company had been in talks with an Alabama clinic about helping preserve embryos before the ruling. He said that following a state Supreme Court ruling, the company restricted employees from directly receiving embryos shipped from its Alabama clinic.
But “embryo handling and storage for patients definitely provides a service related to in vitro fertilization,” Senstra said, which is why he is reluctant to lift the restrictions.
