COLUMBIA — Legislation intending to ensure in vitro fertilization remains an option for South Carolina women trying to get pregnant was introduced this week as a reaction to an Alabama court ruling that put IVF programs there on hold.
Bills introduced in both the House and Senate, mostly by Democrats, explicitly protect the fertility treatments, though there is nothing in South Carolina currently that puts them in jeopardy.
“We know what happened in Alabama. My second child, who is 15 ½, was the result of in vitro fertilization,” Rep. Beth Bernstein, D-Columbia, told reporters. “This bill ensures that no matter what — if someone says it’s not going to happen here — this will ensure it’s not going to happen here.”
The Alabama Supreme Court ruled Feb. 16 that frozen embryos produced as part of the IVF process are legally considered children, causing IVF clinics across the state to shutter as they worked out the legal implications.
Lawmakers in Alabama are moving swiftly to protect IVF and reopen programs. The Alabama House passed a bill aimed at doing so Thursday afternoon, as that state’s Senate debated a similar measure.
The Alabama case stemmed from an accident that resulted in couples losing their frozen embryos. The ruling allowed them to sue the fertility clinic and hospital for wrongful death of a child.
There has been no similar court ruling in South Carolina and no known legal challenge. Lawmakers said they want to avoid any future possibility.
“But for IVF, my family would not have had the opportunity to expand,” said Rep. Kambrell Garvin, D-Blythewood. “I am grateful for modern advancements in technology that enabled me to have one of the most important titles today, and that’s ‘dad.’”
Garvin held up a photo of his daughter as an embryo, which he and his wife were given after she was conceived through IVF. It normally hangs in his daughter’s room, he said.
His one-paragraph bill, co-sponsored by 13 Democrats and three Republicans, doesn’t actually use the words in vitro fertilization or IVF. Instead, it says “any fertilized human egg or human embryo that exists in any form outside of the uterus of a human body shall not, under any circumstance, be considered an unborn child.”
“There are many members of this chamber, both Democrat and Republican who have benefited from IVF,” he said. “So, I think there may be enough folks who will propel these bills that protect IVF in our state.”
Bi-partisan legislation introduced Wednesday in the Senate adds language declaring it the state’s policy to “protect and promote equitable access to the full range of assistive reproductive technologies,” which specifically includes “in vitro fertilization, egg, embryo, or sperm cryopreservation, egg or embryo donation, and gestational surrogacy.”
Penry Gustafson, R-Camden, said the issue is not a partisan one and should not get tied into the Legislature’s fights over ending abortions.
“This is a preventative measure, so that treatment centers won’t be closing,” said Gustafson, among two Republicans, three Democrats, and one Independent co-sponsoring the bill.
Alabama is among states across the South where legislators have nearly completely banned abortions. The ruling has raised concerns about the practical implications of laws that extend legal rights to fetuses from conception.
So-called “personhood” bills have been repeatedly rejected in South Carolina, where abortions are banned at roughly six weeks under a law upheld by the state Supreme Court last August. There is nothing in that law concerning IVF treatments.
Rep. John McCravy, R-Greenwood, said it’s a moot issue in South Carolina that’s being confused with abortion bans.
He said the Family Caucus, which he leads, intends to again pursue legislation next year that would ban abortions from the outset of a pregnancy — mirroring the bill with very limited exceptions that passed the House but was repeatedly rejected in the Senate. McCravy, one of the Legislature’s staunchest abortion foes, noted his bill specified that IVF treatments were allowed. In pledging to introduce it again after the November elections, he said he intends to protect IVF.
“We will continue to monitor the Alabama legislation and if we need to add language to protect the practice of ethical IVF we will do so,” he said in a statement.
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