On Friday, the Alabama Supreme Court declined to reexamine a contentious decision holding that state law considers frozen embryos to be children.
A appeal to reexamine the decision that garnered worldwide attention and forced reproductive clinics to stop operations earlier this year was denied by justices in a 7-2 decision without remark.
In February, Alabama Supreme Court judges decided that three couples, whose frozen embryos were lost in a storage facility accident, could file wrongful death claims on behalf of their “extrauterine children”.
Following the verdict, women’s fertility treatments were discontinued or placed in peril, which incited a surge of public outrage.
Due to worries about civil liability arising from the ruling that treated a frozen embryo under Alabama’s wrongful death law, equivalent to a child or gestating fetus, three facilities discontinued providing IVF procedures.
Following the approval of legislation by state lawmakers that shields providers from legal litigation, the clinics resumed operations.
However, due to concerns about litigation, the Mobile Infirmary Medical Center, the subject of the two lawsuits that resulted in the contentious verdict by the state Supreme Court, stated last month that it will cease IVF operations at the end of 2024.
Read Also: In the Courts: Texas Man Challenges Ex’s Abortion Choice in Colorado
In dissent, Justice Will Sellers stated that he would have agreed to the rehearing motion in order to obtain further data.
According to Sellers,”The majority opinion on original submission had significant and sweeping implications for individuals who were entirely unassociated with the parties in the case. Many of those individuals had no reason to believe that a legal and routine medical procedure would be delayed, much less denied, as a result of this Court’s opinion.”
The lawsuit’s defendants, the Center for Reproductive Medicine and the Mobile Infirmary, had requested that the justices reconsider the matter.
The request was supported by a brief filed by the Alabama Hospital Association and the Medical Association of the State of Alabama. They claimed that even if IVF procedures have started up again, the decision still casts doubt on the medical community.
