An Alabama Immunity Law to Restart In-vitro Fertilization in the Light of the Alabama Abortion ‘Ultimate Sin’

Before the elections, there is a question of how the anti-abortion movement reacts to Republican efforts to sideline it. The Arizona Senate candidate that once called abortion the ‘ultimate sin’ came out against both a federal abortion ban and an Arizona abortion ban that is currently in court.

Leading figures in the movement signed a letter to the Alabama governor on Wednesday urging her to veto the bill. They wrote that both science and logic have made it clear that embryos should be accorded the same human rights and level of dignity as other human beings.

The legislation is designed to allow patients and clinics to immediately restart IVF treatments in Alabama, without fear of legal repercussions if embryos are damaged or destroyed during the medical procedure or related services like embryo storage and shipment.

The bill’s sponsors in the Alabama House and Senate claim this immunity bill is just a stop-gap measure to allow fertility treatments to resume while lawmakers address the remaining questions raised by the court ruling, which could take a while to work out.

The procedure was halted by many clinics because they were unsure of the legality of a Supreme Court ruling that froze frozen embryos are children with a right to life.

The law that was passed in Alabama provides some protections and will permit the University of Alabama to restart in-vitro fertilization (IVF) treatments.

Another IVF provider told NPR earlier in the day they had already scheduled patients for embryo transfers on Thursday in anticipation of the immunity law’s enactment.

The Alabama Immunity Law: “It’s a Band-Aid” and “The Problem is It’s not About When Life Really Starts”

“They’re hearing us loud and clear that this affects Alabama families,” says Corinn O’Brien, with the Fight for Alabama Families Coalition. She’s one of hundreds of advocates who have been lobbying at the statehouse, and says that effort- plus over 20 thousand emails- ramped up pressure on Alabama lawmakers to take action.

“The last couple of weeks have been very traumatic for people and they’ve been left in the lurch of what’s going to happen”, says O’Brien, who is herself pregnant through IVF and sympathizes with those who are in the middle of their treatment.

“I think there’s too much disagreement in the opinion of people on when life really begins,” said Republican Senator and medical immunity doctor Tim Melson, who sponsored the legislation.

During the floor debate, Melson admitted the legislation leaves many unanswered questions, like whether an embryo frozen for three decades before implantation would be considered 30 years old at birth.

Melson told NPR that he removed the personhood language in order to smooth the bill’s passage. He claimed that his immunity bill would allow people to resume treatment without fear that another change to state law might lead to future prosecution.

Rep. Terri Collins, whose identical House immunity bill made it through a vote just three days after being introduced, stressed to her colleagues that the bill is a necessary legislative Band-Aid.

“We are providing with this legislation a pretty broad immunity at this moment in time which to me gives us the impetus to continue to work on this issue for a long term fix,” she said.

Democratic state Rep. Chris England worried that once an immunity bill is signed, lawmakers will lose their sense of urgency and fail to revisit the question of embryonic personhood.

England said that the immunity will shield the clinics from being sued, and that there’s a big issue on pausing the clinics. He advocated that personhood language be added to the existing bill.

The immunity bill does nothing to address a gauntlet of legal questions, like whether doctors who destroy an embryo outside of an in-vivo fertilization service could face homicide charges.

Yarbrough, who is a Republican, advocated to keep the pause on embryo destruction in order to make sure there was no endorsement of the destruction of lives of children.

In a speech that included quotes from the Bible, the TV show Reacher, and the lyrics of 90’s rapper Vanilla Ice, Yarbrough introduced an amendment to the bill to add that “immunity will not be provided to a person who intentionally causes the death of an unborn child.”

The bill made its way through as a two paragraph piece of legislation, despite the fact that the amendment that was put in it would have destroyed the intent of the immunity bill.