Alabama clinic to end IVF services ‘in light of litigation concerns’

An Alabama health system that provides in vitro fertilization will stop offering the services at the end of the year.

Infirmary Health in Mobile, one of the several entities sued over the loss of frozen embryos at a clinic in 2020, announced Wednesday that it will stop providing IVF treatments due to ongoing lawsuits, Alabama Reflector reported.

“In order to assist families in Alabama and along the Gulf Coast who have initiated the process of IVF therapy in the hopes of starting a family, Mobile Infirmary has temporarily resumed IVF treatments at the hospital,” the clinic said in a press release. “However, in light of litigation concerns surrounding IVF therapy, Mobile Infirmary will no longer be able to offer this service to families after December 31, 2024.”

The Alabama Supreme Court ruled in February that embryos outside the womb are “children” after couples sued several IVF providers over the unintentional destruction of frozen embryos and sought civil damages under an 1872 wrongful death of a child statute. The ruling also cited a 2018 constitutional amendment that said the state “has to recognize and support the sanctity of unborn life and the rights of unborn children, including the right to life.”

Fertility clinics in the state halted services until lawmakers passed a law extending criminal and civil immunity to IVF providers and patients. But the measure didn’t declare when life begins, according to the Reflector.

Democrats have argued a constitutional amendment that invalidates the 2018 amendment is necessary to protect IVF services. Republicans have tried to avoid the issue.