An Alabama clinic at the center of a legal battle that sparked fears nationwide about the future of in vitro fertilization is quietly rescheduling embryo transfers. It had paused IVF procedures in the wake of a state Supreme Court ruling in February that frozen embryos can be considered children.
A nurse at the Center for Reproductive Medicine in Mobile said in an email to a patient that it had “been able to resume frozen embryo transfers” but had not been “given the permission from Mobile Infirmary,” an affiliated hospital, “to resume IVF or egg thaws to create embryos.”
Katey Lofton, 33, another patient at the clinic, had been waiting since last fall to have her embryo transferred to her uterus in early March, when she learned the court’s ruling meant the procedure would be delayed. She sent letters to state representatives urging them to protect IVF and encouraged loved ones to do the same.
Lofton got the call last week from her nurse that she’d been rescheduled for March 26.
“We’re super excited,” she said.
Still, the delay has been difficult.
“Each month that passes, each day that passes, that’s a lost opportunity of trying to become parents,” she said.
The Supreme Court ruling sprang from wrongful death claims against the Center for Reproductive Medicine and Mobile Infirmary. In 2020, according to the ruling, a hospital patient removed several embryos from the clinic’s freezer, but the temperature “freeze-burned” the patient’s hand, causing them to drop the embryos, destroying them. The court ruled that a state law “applies to all children, born and unborn, without limitation.”
The Center for Reproductive Medicine was one of at least three IVF providers in the state to halt services after the court’s decision. Advocacy groups and health law experts argued that the court’s ruling posed legal risks to IVF medical staff and patients. And providers questioned whether they would be forced to take on additional…
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