22/02/2024, 15:14 Second Alabama clinic pauses IVF treatments after frozen embryo ruling - BBC News

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Second Alabama clinic pauses

IVF treatments after frozen
embryo ruling
1 hour ago

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By Chloe Kim
BBC News

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22/02/2024, 15:14 Second Alabama clinic pauses IVF treatments after frozen embryo ruling - BBC News

A fertility clinic is the second facility in Alabama - after a hospital - to pause

new IVF treatments after the state supreme court ruled that frozen embryos
should be considered children.

The clinic, Alabama Fertility, said it had concerns of "legal risk" if it carried on
with the treatments.

It meant fewer babies would be born in Alabama, one of the clinicians said.

The court ruling was prompted by three couples who filed a case after their
embryos were accidentally destroyed.

The incident occurred in 2020. A patient wandered into the part of a fertility
clinic where the embryos being stored, handled them, and accidentally
dropped them.

The ruling did not ban or restrict IVF and in fact, the couples who brought the
case actively sought out the procedure.

But experts say the decision may cause confusion about whether some
aspects of IVF are legal under Alabama law - and over how to use and store
embryos.

IVF - which stands for invitro fertilisation - offers a possible solution to women
who face challenges getting pregnant. Officials say around 2% of US
pregnancies are the result of this method.

The process involves retrieving the woman's eggs with a needle from her
ovaries and combining them with a man's sperm in a lab. The fertilised embryo
is then transferred into the woman's uterus, where it may create a pregnancy.

The development has opened up a new front in the US battle over

reproductive medicine.

The southern US state's largest hospital earlier stated its own decision to
pause IVF services, over fears it could be exposed to criminal prosecution.

Why did the Alabama lawsuit occur and what did the court rule?

Alabama Fertility, the largest clinic in the state, announced in a Facebook post
on Thursday its "impossibly difficult decision to hold new IVF treatments due
to the legal risk to our clinic and our embryologists".

It said it was contacting affected patients "to find solutions", and would alert
legislators "as to the far reaching negative impact of this ruling on the women
of Alabama".

It vowed to "continue to fight for our patients and the families of Alabama".

Dr Mamie McLean from the clinic told the BBC World Service Newshour
programme that her patients would not be able to go through IVF in the near

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22/02/2024, 15:14 Second Alabama clinic pauses IVF treatments after frozen embryo ruling - BBC News

future.

She said the court ruling made it "impossible" for IVF treatments to happen in
the state, adding that "there will be fewer babies in Alabama because of this".
She pointed out that Alabama already had one of the lowest net population
growths in the nation.

Dr McLean explained: "If an embryo is considered a child, the legal

ramifications are too far-reaching and scary. We cannot put our practice or our
embryology team at the risk of significant legal penalty or even jail time. And
unfortunately, our patients are bearing the burden of this misguided ruling."

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