The Alabama Supreme Court recently ruled that frozen embryos are considered children and that damaging a frozen embryo can carry severe legal repercussions, including charges of wrongful death of a minor. In this ruling, Chief Justice Tom Parker quoted the Bible nearly two-dozen times, including Jeremiah 1:5, a wildly popular passage within the anti-abortion movement: “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you.”
As a result of this ruling, several clinics providing in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatments across Alabama have halted services, unsure of how to proceed. I can’t help but recall all the abortion clinics that have closed across the country after Roe v. Wade was overturned, and the doctors who were hesitant to perform life-saving abortions over fear of being charged with murder.
I will not be the first or last to say that this ruling is absolutely egregious. It’s entirely contradictory to the message pro-lifers are pushing. They have said over and over again that the unborn are precious and deserve a chance at life, that pregnancy and motherhood are a miracle bestowed on people by God. Yet, they are actively making it more difficult for individuals in Alabama to get pregnant and have experience of motherhood.
IVF treatments require the fertilization of several eggs and placing one or more eggs into the uterus. According to a study conducted by the Weill-Cornell Center for Reproductive Health, the success rate of IVFin women under thirty-five on the first round is 33% and, more often than not, it requires several rounds of treatment for an embryo to develop into a fetus. Does Alabama mean to prosecute an individual, a doctor or an organization for unlawful death of a minor, because of the natural processes associated with IVF? If an embryo fails to attach to the placenta on the first try, is that murder?
It is obvious, now, that overturning Roe v. Wade was never about life, and neither is Alabama’s ruling. Limiting pregnant people from leaving the state to find abortion care out of state and IVF treatment was just the beginning. Gov. Greg Abbott voiced his support of IVF treatment but also stated that it’s a “complicated issue” and that “Texas is a pro-life state.” Without severe action, I’m afraid that it’s only going to get worse from here. It was always about control, not just limiting when people can decide they don’t want to be pregnant, but limiting when they can decide that they do.
I was raised in the Methodist Church, and while I’m not a Christian, I am eternally grateful to the Christians who nurtured, taught and raised me. However, using religion to limit people’s access to healthcare is disgusting. Justifying these policies with the Bible when the operations of this country are contingent on the separation of Church and State highlights how our democracy is coming apart at the seams.
In times like this, I find myself returning to this relevant quote from Methodist Pastor David Barnhart.
“‘The unborn’ are a convenient group of people to advocate for. . . . You can love the unborn and advocate for them without substantially challenging your own wealth, power, or privilege, without re-imagining social structures, apologizing, or making reparations to anyone. They are, in short, the perfect people to love if you want to claim you love Jesus, but actually dislike people who breathe. Prisoners? Immigrants? The sick? The poor? Widows? Orphans? All the groups that are specifically mentioned in the Bible? They all get thrown under the bus for the unborn.”
Alabama’s ruling is, to say the least, incredibly concerning and contrary to both the pro-life movement’s goals and the Bible that motivates their beliefs. By limiting access to get pregnant, pro-life law makers have revealed their true intentions: to create a state in which pregnant people cannot make choices for themselves, at the mercy of legislators who don’t know the first thing about reproductive healthcare.
