Texas Governor Greg Abbott has "no doubt that Texas will be among the states that will be addressing" in vitro fertilization (IVF) after the recent Alabama Supreme Court ruling, he told CNN's Dana Bash on Sunday's State of the Union.
The Context
Last week, the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that embryos are unborn children. However, the ruling sparked criticism from Democrats and Republicans as questions arose about how the decision could hinder patients getting IVF treatment. With fears that doctors could be sued for destroying embryos, several facilities in Alabama have paused their IVF services.
The Alabama ruling was formed in a post-Dobbs decision America. After Roe v. Wade was overturned in the summer of 2022, with the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, several states have stripped away the right for a woman to have an abortion as early as six weeks into her pregnancy.
What We Know
Abbott was questioned on Sunday by Bash about the Alabama ruling, the uncertainty of what it means for IVF treatment and what it could mean for Texans.
"Will you be urging the legislature to come up with laws that deal with this question and keep IVF legal?" Bash asked Abbott.
The governor responded: "I have no doubt that Texas will be among the states that will be addressing this issue when we can bring together all the different facts and scenarios about what could happen. But also knowing Texas, listen, as you know, Texas is a pro-life state, and we want to do everything possible that we can to maintain Texas being a pro-life state.
"But, at the very same time, I think Texans agree with what President Trump said and that is, we as a state want to ensure that we promote life, we bring more life into the world, and we empower parents to be able to have more children."
Newsweek reached out to Abbott's office via email for comment.
Views
While many Republicans have argued for anti-abortion laws in what they see as an attempt to save the lives of fetuses, GOP lawmakers and politicians have spoken out in support of protecting IVF treatments.
Former President Donald Trump, the GOP frontrunner in the 2024 presidential election, pressured the Alabama legislature to "find an immediate solution to preserve the availability of IVF" in a social media post on Friday.
"Like the OVERWHELMING MAJORITY of Americans, including the VAST MAJORITY of Republicans, Conservatives, Christians, and Pro-Life Americans, I strongly support the availability of IVF for couples who are trying to have a precious baby. Today, I am calling on the Alabama Legislature to act quickly to find an immediate solution to preserve the availability of IVF in Alabama," he wrote on Truth Social.
Vice President Kamala Harris told reporters on Thursday that the Alabama ruling is "shocking," but "not surprising."
Meanwhile, Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley told NBC News on Wednesday that "embryos, to me, are babies."
Haley, the former South Carolina governor who had her son through artificial insemination, later told CNN's Jake Tapper that she disagreed with the Alabama ruling, "but I think that the court was doing it based on the law and I think Alabama needs to go back and look at the law."
What's Next?
In an email to Newsweek on Friday, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall's chief counsel, Katherine Robertson, said that "Attorney General Marshall has no intention of using the recent Alabama Supreme Court decision as a basis for prosecuting IVF families or providers."
With the Alabama decision, states, especially ones that are anti-abortion, will have to answer to questions about if IVF will be protected in a post-Dobbs decision America.
Meanwhile, this new ruling could give Democrats more ammo in their efforts to convince Americans, especially women and those most affected by anti-abortion laws and attacks on reproductive health care, to vote blue in the upcoming election.
In January, President Joe Biden said at an abortion-rights rally in Virginia: "Give me a Democratic House of Representatives and give me a bigger Democratic Senate where we will pass a new law restoring and protecting Roe v. Wade, and I will sign it up immediately."
Update 2/25/24, 9:56 a.m. ET: This article has been updated with additional information.
Update 2/25/24, 10:28 a.m. ET: This article has been updated with additional information.
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Rachel Dobkin is a Newsweek reporter based in New York. Her focus is reporting on politics. Rachel joined Newsweek in ... Read more
