Republicans Call Alabama IVF Ruling 'Scary'

Republican politicians have reacted incredulously to a ruling by Alabama's all-GOP state Supreme Court last week which found that embryos created through in vitro fertilization (IVF) should be considered children.

New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu described the ruling as "scary" at the Politico Governors Summit on Thursday, while Florida Representative Matt Gaetz told CNN the same day that there was something "totally wrong" about the situation.

While he felt the court had "correctly assessed the law," he thought "Alabama law needs to change because the Republican Party cannot be the party against family formation." He added: "The people who want to have a family should have the government and the law on their side."

The Alabama justices cited the state's constitution, which recognizes the "rights of the unborn child" and said: "Unborn children are 'children'...without exception based on developmental stage, physical location, or any other ancillary characteristics."

They allowed three couples, who had frozen embryos destroyed in a storage facility mishap, to pursue wrongful death claims against the IVF clinic. Clinicians warned that the ruling could lead to couples creating fewer embryos—making the chance of a successful pregnancy less likely—or skipping genetic testing of embryos that detect abnormalities.

The ruling has already seen several IVF clinics in the state pause treatments due to uncertainty over their potential liability.

While in line with the thinking of anti-abortion activists, who argue that life begins at conception, the ruling lays bare a tension between the GOP's typically anti-abortion stance and its endorsement of traditional families.

"What we do could not be any more pro-life," Dr. Brett Davenport, of the Fertility Institute in northern Alabama, told the Associated Press. "We're trying to help couples who can't otherwise conceive a child."

The decision also poses a problem for Republican lawmakers, who are seeking to win over suburban women and swing voters in the election in November.

Nikki Haley, the former ambassador to the U.N., who is challenging Donald Trump for the Republican presidential nomination, initially agreed that embryos "are babies," before changing her position in an interview with CNN on Thursday in which she said Alabama "needs to go back and look at the law."

She stressed: "We don't want fertility treatments to shut down. We don't want them to stop doing IVF treatments."

Lawmakers in Alabama's legislature—which has a Republican majority in both houses—have already proposed multiple possible changes to the law.

Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville told NBC News on Thursday that he was "all for it," in reference to the ruling, but added: "We need more kids. We need people to have an opportunity to have kids."

At the Politico Governors Summit, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp and Tennessee Governor Bill Lee both defended IVF, while demurring from commenting on the specifics of the case.

Meanwhile, Democrats have pounced on the issue as a political talking point, either to reaffirm their pro-abortion stance or expose the dilemma faced by Republicans.

President Joe Biden wrote in an X, formerly Twitter, post on Thursday that the ruling was "a direct result of Donald Trump ending Roe v. Wade," in reference to the U.S. Supreme Court's 2022 decision to allow states to decide on abortion law.

The same day his vice president, Kamala Harris, told a reproductive rights event in Grand Rapids, Michigan: "Individuals, couples who want to start a family are now being deprived of access to what can help them start a family.

"So, on the one hand, the proponents are saying that an individual doesn't have a right to end an unwanted pregnancy and, on the other hand, the individual does not have a right to start a family."