#Alabama’s GOP-controlled House voted Thursday to give doctors who provide in-vitro fertilization civil and criminal immunity for any death or damage to embryos. #IVF
~When a woman is pregnant, science tells us the new life she carries is a completely separate and fully new human being from the moment of fertilization," Johnson said at a 2021 hearing on Texas's 6-week abortion ban.
👉🏼 “#Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall weighed in on the issue on Friday. Marshall said he “has no intention of using the recent Alabama Supreme Court decision as a basis for prosecuting #IVF families or providers,” in a statement from Chief Counsel Katherine Robertson.”
"The Alabama decision is a direct result of the June 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision of the U.S. Supreme Court, decided thanks to the three religious extremists former president Trump nominated to the Supreme Court. That decision referred to fetuses as 'unborn human being[s]' when it overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision recognizing the constitutional right to abortion."
"Alabama Supreme Court chief justice Tom Parker was downright gleeful.
He quoted Genesis in his sermon — I’m sorry, his concurring opinion — in the Alabama ruling that turned in vitro fertilization on its head by defining frozen embryos as children.
He quoted 17th century Dutch theologian Petrus Van Mastricht."
A third #Alabama#IVF clinic has halted treatment as the fallout from last week’s state Supreme Court ruling that frozen #embryos are legally #children continues to disrupt IVF access across the state.
The Center for Reproductive Medicine in Mobile, 1 of just 7 IVF clinics statewide, announced Thurs that it had paused IVF procedures in light of the court ruling.
“#Alabama lawmakers are considering legislation that would protect in vitro fertilization, after a State Supreme Court ruling last week led some clinics to halt #IVF treatments and left many women in limbo.”
“When the #Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos are considered children under state law, its chief justice had a higher authority in mind.
By citing verses from the Bible and Christian theologians in his concurring opinion, Chief Justice Tom Parker alarmed advocates for church-state separation, while delighting religious conservatives who oppose abortion.” #IVF
"The same extremists lining up to support a federal abortion ban, that would override hard-earned reproductive freedoms in states like Ohio, are now tripping all over themselves to profess their support for IVF and personal choice. Yeah right."
In addition to a 17th-century Dutch theologian (Petrus van Mastricht) and the King James bible, one of the authorities cited by Alabama chief justice Parker in his ruling on IVF is the medieval theologian Thomas Aquinas. Parker's ruling cites Aquinas six times.
As someone with an M.A. and Ph.D. in historical theology — from a Catholic university — I know a little about Aquinas. Here are some salient points:
As Lucian K. Truscott says, the Alabama Supreme Court ruling that cells in a test tube are a baby and deserve the same rights that a baby has puts Republicans in a real bind.
It does so because it tells us that "pro-life" Republicans have not ever truly meant what they claim to believe, when they say that "life" begins at conception.
He quoted Genesis in his #sermon — I’m sorry, his concurring opinion — in the AL ruling that turned #IVF on its head by defining #FrozenEmbryos as children.
#Alabama Lawmakers Move to Protect #IVF Treatments
A court ruling declaring frozen #embryos to be legally considered children has set off a scramble among leaders in both parties to preserve access to a crucial reproductive treatment.
The AL #legislature voted Thurs to #protect#doctors doing IVF from #criminal or #civil#liability if #embryos they help to create are subsequently damaged or destroyed.
The fast action by both the House & Senate on bills to shield IVF came >2 wks after the state’s Supreme Court ruled that #FrozenEmbryos are people & that individuals could be liable for destroying them.
What I missed at first, and then read somewhere, is that these are not #embryos, but zygotes. If the law really pertains to zygotes, women’s ovaries would be owned by the state, and getting a hysterectomy would be a criminal act. And can’t just bust on female zygotes: gotta clamp down on all those sperm swimming around. Not to mention the ones jettisoned into socks, and condoms, and random pies.
👏🏻#Michigan Gov. Gretchen #Whitmer signs new law decriminalizing surrogacy contracts. The legislation also includes more protections for #LGBTQ+ parents and greater access to #IVF -MSNBC