In February 2024, Alabama families woke up to a nightmare. IVF clinics closed overnight. Appointments were canceled. Treatments stopped mid-cycle. Families who had invested years of hope, savings, and prayer were suddenly told to wait, without knowing when or if care would resume.
My husband and I know exactly what that uncertainty feels like. After four and a half years of secondary infertility, IVF was the only reason we were able to welcome our second daughter in June.
When access to IVF is threatened, it is not an abstract legal debate. It is the difference between growing your family and losing your chance altogether. Alabama is a pro-family state. We say it often, and we mean it. But being pro-family requires more than rhetoric. It requires policies that allow families to bring children into the world, especially whendoing so is anything but easy.
Families who turn to IVF have already traveled a long and painful road. No one chooses this path lightly. It comes after loss, disappointment, and months or years of unanswered prayers. For many of us, IVF is not one option among many; it is the only way we are able to hold our children in our arms.
That is why we are grateful to President Trump for taking action to make IVF medications more affordable. The medications required for one IVF cycle can cost between $1,000 and $5,000.
Lowering that burden is meaningful. It sends a signal that family-building matters at the highest levels of government. We are also deeply grateful for Senator Katie Britt’s leadership following the Alabama Supreme Court decision that halted IVF care across our state.
She did not shy away from a complex and politically sensitive issue. She stepped forward to advocate for Alabama families when they needed it most. But the work is not done.
We are grateful to the Alabama Legislature for acting swiftly in 2024 to pass the IVF Immunity Law—an important and necessary step that allowed clinics to reopen, families to resume treatment, and a crisis to be temporarily averted. However, the reality is that the law was crafted under intense pressure and compromise. It restored access, but it did not secure it.
Today, a single court challenge could once again throw families into chaos. Treatments could be paused. Clinics could close. Patients, including women preparing for cancer treatment, could lose their window of opportunity.
That instability is unacceptable.
If Alabama truly wants to be a pro-family state, we must provide permanent protection for IVF. That means passing a constitutional amendment guaranteeing the right to access IVF care. Families deserve certainty. They deserve to know that their ability to build a family will not hinge on the next lawsuit or judicial interpretation. This is not a partisan issue. It is not about ideology. It is about whether Alabama will stand behind the families it claims to support.
Fight for Alabama Families is committed to working with leaders at every level to make this protection a reality. We are grateful for the steps that have been taken. But we are not finished.
Families like mine cannot afford for this to fade into the background of political debate. Too much is at stake. The hope of holding a child, celebrating birthdays, attending graduations, and watching dreams unfold – those moments depend on what our leaders choose to do next.
Alabama families showed up. We spoke. We shared our stories. And we will continue to do so until IVF is permanently protected. Because being pro-family is not a slogan. It’s a promise.
Corinn O’Brien is the Founder of Fight for Alabama Families, a grassroots movement working to protect and expand access to IVF and family-building care across the state.
