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Alabama lawmakers have voted to protect access to in vitro fertilisation, after a state Supreme Court ruling that frozen embryos should be considered children sparked a nationwide backlash.
The Alabama court ruling pushed reproductive rights back to the centre of the national political debate, just as Democrats try to galvanise supporters amid Republican-led efforts to restrict access to abortions.
Reproductive healthcare has become a rallying point for Democrats as the US presidential race gets under way, with President Joe Biden blaming Republicans for restricting access to abortion after the Supreme Court overturned Roe vs Wade in 2022.
The Alabama court decision also prompted hand-wringing from Republicans, who have underperformed in several elections since Roe was overturned.
Donald Trump, the frontrunner for the Republican nomination for president, vehemently insisted last week that he supports access to IVF. He has previously taken credit for the Roe decision, after appointing three conservative Supreme Court justices when he was president.
Both chambers of the Alabama state legislature voted on Thursday to approve two Republican-proposed bills intended to preserve access to IVF treatments, including protecting doctors from being held liable for providing IVF services.
The lawmakers’ move came weeks after the state’s Supreme Court ruling prompted Alabama clinics to stop offering fertility treatments, for fear that their doctors could be prosecuted for providing care to women trying to conceive. Frozen embryos are often discarded or destroyed as part of the IVF process.
Following Roe’s reversal, anti-abortion lawmakers have been emboldened to pursue “foetal personhood” — legal recognition of the unborn as children. Critics say the definition threatens women’s rights.
Trump said in a social media post last week that under his leadership the Republican party would “always support the creation of strong, thriving, healthy American families”, including “supporting the availability of fertility treatments like IVF in every state in America”.
Trump called on the state legislature in Alabama to “act quickly to find an immediate solution to preserve the availability of IVF” in the state.
His intervention came shortly after the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the campaign arm focused on electing Republicans to the US Senate, issued a memo calling on its candidates to “clearly and concisely reject efforts by the government to restrict IVF”.
The NRSC cited polling conducted by Kellyanne Conway, Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign manager, showing that 85 per cent of Americans support increasing access to fertility-related procedures and services.
Efforts on Capitol Hill to codify access to IVF nationwide hit a stumbling block this week after Republicans blocked a Democrat-led bill to provide federal protections for the treatments.
The Alabama state Supreme Court ruled that “unborn children are ‘children’ . . . without exception based on developmental stage, physical location, or any other ancillary characteristics”.
The decision stemmed from wrongful death lawsuits brought by individuals who claimed embryos that were developed via IVF treatments were destroyed by a patient at their fertility clinic.
