We want to begin tonight with shockwaves being felt in the world of reproductive health care following a bombshell IVF ruling by Alabama’s Supreme Court. In Friday’s unprecedented decision, the all-Republican court ruled that frozen embryos are the legal equivalent of children. Now, Alabama’s largest hospital is pausing all in-vitro fertilization treatments as healthcare providers across the state and country evaluate what this means. The ruling could have a devastating effect for people who desperately want to have children in a state that already has one of the nation’s strictest abortion laws. The decision may also make the already expensive cost of infertility skyrocket because of rising liability costs. To understand the possible impact, look at these numbers from the CDC. Nearly one hundred thousand babies were born in the US in 2021 using IVF treatments. That’s more than 2% of all births.

Thirty-four-year-old J.Y turned to IVF to get pregnant, but now her dream of having another child has come to a sudden halt. This morning, Y got a phone call from her fertility doctor at the University of Alabama with the news. The hospital system is pausing all IVF treatments while it takes closer look at the state’s Supreme Court’s ruling that frozen embryos are consider people. In a statement to CBSN, the University of Alabama says it is saddened, “but we must evaluate the potential that our patients and our physicians could be prosecuted criminally or face punitive damages following the standard of care for IVF treatments”.