After Alabama Supreme Court’s decision to classify an embryo as a living child, fertility clinics across the state have paused IVF treatments for fear that continuing them could lead to legal consequences.
To address the issue, several Alabama Republican lawmakers, including Representative Terri Collins, have introduced legislation to protect IVF providers and also their patients receiving treatment.
Collins (R-Decatur) stopped by Todd Stacey’s Capitol Journal late last week to discuss the ruling, its collateral effects, and also her piece of legislation.
“Right now several of our clinics have closed and some of the others have threatened because they feel like there is a bigger liability now than they had felt before the supreme court ruling last week,” Collins said.
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“This bill offers an immunity for that, for the embryo, for them as the provider, and for the receiver. So, for the patients, which yesterday we realized that we had not covered them with some immunity and so this did both.”
Passing the legislation, according to Collins, is an urgent matter for both the women receiving the treatment as well as their families.
“We’re moving fast. But we are moving fast for the same reason that we saw so many advocates here yesterday at the State House, many of whom were literally in the middle of a process,” Collins continued. “And when their clinics paused it paused their process and they’re going through pretty extreme processes, even painful sometimes.”
Ultimately, the bill’s main priority is to get the treatment centers re-opened.
“Our biggest goal has been to get these clinics to open back up as we work through what I’ll call the deeper issues of the ruling that the supreme court had.”
Collins acknowledged that the ruling goes beyond just affecting IVF treatments.
“It truly is a bigger issue than just the clinics and I think its some very hard conservations. I think its conversations on both sides of the aisle and within the very super majority Republican caucus.”
She also emphasized Alabama’s identity as a pro-life state and said that IVF is in fact pro-life.
“We have a constitutional amendment that says that we are a pro-life state. We have the Human Life Protection Act passed in 2019,” Collins noted. “We feel like we are a strong pro-life state and I’m proud to be a part of that, but I also believe that through IVF and through these methods these women and families are building their families.”
Collins believes that her legislation could pass and be signed by Governor Ivey as early as this Wednesday.
Austen Shipley is a staff writer for Yellowhammer News.
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