Alabama Ruling Does Not Prohibit IVF

When the Alabama supreme court ruled in LePage v. Center for Reproductive Medicine last month, figures on the left and in the media were swift to form ranks against the “Christian nationalist” decision, which supposedly would halt in vitro fertilization (IVF) in Alabama and create a “reproductive hell.”

Contrary to what the media backlash might suggest, the case taken up by the Alabama court did not actually address IVF. The case asked whether parents could sue a fertility clinic for wrongful death of a child because of the clinic’s negligence in failing to properly secure their embryos. The case concerned an unauthorized individual gaining access to a tray of frozen embryos in the clinic’s unlocked freezer and dropping it on the floor, thereby destroying the embryos. The Alabama supreme court did not determine whether the clinic in question was responsible for the destruction of the embryos but whether the parents could continue their suit against the clinic under the long-standing law that allows parents to sue other entities and individuals over the wrongful death of a child.

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Kayla Bartsch

Kayla Bartsch is a former William F. Buckley Jr. Fellow in Political Journalism at National Review.

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When the Alabama supreme court ruled in LePage v. Center for Reproductive Medicine last month, figures on the left and in the media were swift to form ranks against the “Christian nationalist” decision, which supposedly would halt in vitro fertilization (IVF) in Alabama and create a “reproductive hell.”

Contrary to what the media backlash might suggest, the case taken up by the Alabama court did not actually address IVF. The case asked whether parents could sue a fertility clinic for wrongful death of a child because of the clinic’s negligence in failing to properly secure their embryos. The case concerned an unauthorized individual gaining access to a tray of frozen embryos in the clinic’s unlocked freezer and dropping it on the floor, thereby destroying the embryos. The Alabama supreme court did not determine whether the clinic in question was responsible for the destruction of the embryos but whether the parents could continue their suit against the clinic under the long-standing law that allows parents to sue other entities and individuals over the wrongful death of a child.