Alabama Attorney General Says He Won't Prosecute IVF Providers, Families
Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall on Friday scrambled to assure in vitro fertilization providers and patients in the state that he has no intention of prosecuting them, following an explosive Alabama Supreme Court ruling last week that found frozen embryos should legally be considered children.
“Attorney General Marshall has no intention of using the recent Alabama Supreme Court decision as a basis for prosecuting IVF families or providers,” Katherine Robertson, chief counsel in the Alabama attorney general’s office, said in a statement.
At least three IVF clinics in the state have paused their services, fearing they could be held criminally liable for the embryos that form the core of their work.
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey (R) called on state lawmakers to clarify the ruling and explicitly protect IVF procedures.
“Following the ruling from the Alabama Supreme Court, I said that in our state, we work to foster a culture of life,” Ivey said in a statement Friday. “This certainly includes some couples hoping and praying to be parents who utilize IVF... I look forward to continue closely following this issue.”
Alabama has some of the strictest anti-abortion laws in the country ― all of which the state attorney general has championed. Marshall pledged last year that he’ll try to prosecute people who take abortion pills and those who provide and facilitate travel for out-of-state abortion access.
In his concurring opinion last week, Alabama Chief Justice Tom Parker turned to the Bible to justify his decision.
“Human life cannot be wrongfully destroyed without incurring the wrath of a holy God, who views the destruction of His image as an affront to Himself,” he wrote.
“Even before birth,” Parker added, “all human beings have the image of God, and their lives cannot be destroyed without effacing his glory.”
Parker also recently appeared on a podcast hosted by a QAnon conspiracy theorist, where he claimed “God created government” and invoked Christian nationalist theology.
