Alabama ruling causes concern for IVF patients, clinics in North Carolina

Three Alabama fertility clinics paused in vitro fertilization treatments after a decision last week by the Alabama Supreme Court.

The court ruled that embryos created during IVF are children, and couples can sue under the state's wrongful death law should those embryos be destroyed.

On Friday, WRAL News spoke with Dr. Meaghan Bowling, who is the IVF director for Carolina Conceptions. She expressed her concern about IVF patients’ ability to get treatment.

“The Alabama ruling is very important and has led to a lot of concern and honestly fear among the fertility doctors throughout the nation,” Bowling said.

Carolina Conceptions has about 9,000 embryos stored at its fertility clinic in Raleigh. Couples freeze extra embryos because it usually takes one to three embryo transfers to get a baby.

“It will have a massive impact on patients’ ability to have success with IVF,” Bowling said.

More couples could seek treatments in North Carolina if IVF clinics are forced to close in Alabama. The decision – like the one that ended the national right to abortion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization -- put doctors and fertility clinics on alert.

Lauren Garrett already has two kids from IVF, and just did another embryo transfer this week. She is thinking about the embryos she has frozen and what she would do.

“Do we discard those now?” Garrett said. “Is our family complete now?

“Do we keep trying and take that risk that something like that will happen in North Carolina, and then we're going to be forced to make those decisions then?”

Bowling studied at the University of Alabama-Birmingham and had her own IVF treatment at one of the clinics that has paused services.

“This isn't happening here in North Carolina, but you know, anything can happen,” Bowling said.

Some states have fetal personhood laws. Four states, including South Carolina, can prosecute women for neglect and child endangerment.

Trump says he strongly supports IVF after Alabama court ruling

On Friday, former President Donald Trump said he would “strongly support the availability of IVF" and called on lawmakers in Alabama to preserve access to the treatment.”

It was his first comment since an Alabama Supreme Court ruling that led some providers in the state to suspend their in vitro fertilization programs and has left Republicans divided over the issue.

Since the Alabama Supreme Court's ruling that frozen embryos could be considered children under a state law, Alabama lawmakers have been scrambling for ways to protect the state's IVF services. Multiple Alabama providers have paused services since the ruling.

Justices ruled last week that three couples who had frozen embryos destroyed in a mishap at a storage facility could pursue wrongful death claims for their “extrauterine children.” Justices cited sweeping language that the GOP-controlled Legislature and voters added to the Alabama Constitution in 2018 saying that the state recognizes the “rights of the unborn child.”

Senate Minority Leader Bobby Singleton, a Democrat, said Republicans helped create the situation in their push to enact some of the most stringent anti-abortion laws in the country. The result, he said, was eliminating a path for people to become parents.

“At the end of the day, the Republican Party has to be responsible for what they have done,” Singleton said.

Former President Donald Trump joined the calls for Alabama lawmakers to act Friday and said he would “strongly support the availability of IVF.”

State Republican lawmakers said they were working on a solution.