Republicans in the U.S. House have gotten tangled up in the fallout from the ruling by the Alabama Supreme Court that frozen embryos are children, making in vitro fertilization potentially illegal in some cases..
The ruling grew out of a 2020 case involving a fertility clinic that was hit by a wrongful death suit after an employee mishandled and destroyed the embryos of three women. After a lower court ruled that the embryos did not qualify as a person or child, the suit could not move forward.
The Alabama Supreme Court ruled that the embryos were, indeed, children and the wrongful death law applied to "all unborn children, regardless of their location," the decision said.
Considering embryos as children raises questions at clinics about how embryos are used and stored. There's also a question of what to do with embryos that are no longer needed. Wouldn't "disposing" of the embryos be considered murder?
There have always been moral questions about the use of IVF. The Catholic Church has forbidden the practice, claiming in several Magisterial pronouncements "the Church says 'no' to IVF due to the massive destruction of embryonic life, the assault on the meaning of the conjugal act and the treatment of the child as a product not a gift."
Indeed, the capability already exists to create "designer babies" — a capability that grows by the year.
It's an issue that needs to be discussed as a moral and legal matter. Unfortunately, in a presidential election year, that's not possible.
The Alabama decision has gone off like a political bomb in the House with members scrambling to distance themselves from the decision. Donald Trump immediately came out in favor of the Alabama legislature protecting the right of parents to use IVF to conceive a child.
"We want to make it easier for mothers and fathers to have babies, not harder! That includes supporting the availability of fertility treatments like IVF in every State in America," Trump wrote in a post on his social-media platform, Truth.
Joe Biden immediately tried to blame Trump for the Alabama decision.
"Make no mistake: this is because Donald Trump overturned Roe v. Wade," President Joe Biden's campaign account said on X.
Biden's idiotic accusation aside, Republicans are hunkering down and playing defense. The GOP Senate candidate organization put out a blast to all candidates about the ruling.
"NRSC encourages Republican Senate candidates to clearly and concisely reject efforts by the government to restrict IVF," Jason Thielman, the National Republican Senatorial Committee's executive director, wrote in a message to candidates.
In a Pew Research Center poll of US adults conducted in April, just over one in four respondents said they had used fertility treatments or knew someone who had. Dr. Zev Williams, the director of the Columbia University Fertility Center, told CNN that about 2% of births in the US were a result of IVF — over 8 million babies.
Earlier in the week, a handful of GOP governors either directly criticized the ruling or stressed that their state did not have similar restrictions. Gov. Kevin Stitt of Oklahoma, who signed one of the nation's most restrictive abortion requirements into law, said he didn't think it would be a crime to destroy an embryo.
Getting hormone shots or other treatments short of IVF are not at risk so the inclusion of that Pew poll isn't relevant. However, the fact that Trump, the Republican governors, GOP Senate candidates, and many individual Republicans are running away from the implications of this ruling says a lot about its political potency.
What about the Alabama attorney General?
“Attorney General Marshall has no intention of using the recent Alabama Supreme Court decision as a basis for prosecuting IVF families or providers,” Katherine Robertson, chief counsel in the Alabama attorney general’s office, said in a statement.
As Trump was urging, Alabama lawmakers are fashioning a bill to allow IVF to go forward.
State Senator Tim Melson, a Republican who has worked as an anesthesiologist and clinical researcher, is planning to introduce a measure that would ensure people can continue to pursue I.V.F. treatment.
Gov. Kay Ivey, a Republican, signaled she would support such a proposal, saying in a statement on Friday that fostering “a culture of life” included helping “couples hoping and praying to be parents who utilize I.V.F.”
Naturally, gleeful Democrats are readying an ad blitz to try to portray Republicans in a bad light over the ruling. That was going to happen anyway. It's all about framing the issue and Republicans may be able to blunt the Democrat's attack by framing the IVF issue in terms of humanity.
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