For Immediate Release: February 28, 2024
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National and State Policies Must Balance IVF With Respect for Life
Washington, D.C. – SBA Pro-Life America is urging members of Congress and lawmakers in Alabama to balance the need to allow the continued practice of IVF with the responsibility to respect life.
Regarding H. Res. In Support of Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) sponsored by Rep. Nancy Mace, SBA Pro-Life America issued the following statement:
“This resolution takes an ‘anything goes’ approach and completely ignores that the families who filed the Alabama lawsuit did so because they saw their embryos as their children who were recklessly destroyed. The Mace resolution leaves no room for reasonable laws like the one in Louisiana that for decades has protected human embryos while also allowing IVF. In fact, there are more babies born through IVF in Louisiana than in Alabama.”
On Sen. Tammy Duckworth’s Access to Building Families Act, SBA says:
“This bill is not just about a right to fertility treatment. It is a sweeping anything goes bill that would even codify a right to human cloning and genetic engineering of human embryos. Moreover, it overrides the Religious Freedom Restoration Act so people could be forced to participate in destroying embryos.”
As the Alabama Senate Healthcare and House Health Committees consider IVF legislation this afternoon, SBA Pro-Life America, Alabama Policy Institute, Alabama Pro-Life Coalition, and Eagle Forum of Alabama issued a joint statement:
“It is unacceptable the Alabama legislature has advanced a bill that falls short of pro-life expectations and fails to respect the dignity of human life. Alabama can do both: allow the continued practice of IVF with care for those suffering from infertility and respect life created through the IVF. We have full confidence that the same legislature that passed a law protecting the unborn throughout pregnancy will also take this crucial step to continue protecting all human life, in keeping with the people of Alabama who are ardently pro-life.”
Last week, the Alabama Supreme Court issued a ruling in support of parents whose embryos were destroyed when a patient wandered into an area where embryos were stored and dropped several of them. The Court ruled that the embryos are not inanimate objects and recognized that life begins at conception. The ruling did not ban IVF but rather meant that fertility treatments need not carelessly or intentionally destroy the new life created. The ruling is based on state law including Alabama’s homicide law that protects unborn children and is unrelated to the Dobbs ruling.
SBA Pro-Life America is in favor of Alabama adopting a law similar to Louisiana’s. Louisiana has had a law in place since the 1980s that requires IVF be practiced in a more ethical way. The law does not hinder parents from having children through IVF. Under its law, Louisiana has more embryo transfers and live births through IVF than Alabama, despite Alabama having a larger population.
Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America is a network of more than one million pro-life Americans nationwide, dedicated to ending abortion by electing national leaders and advocating for laws that save lives, with a special calling to promote pro-life women leaders.
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