Declaration that IVF embryos are ‘extrauterine children’ means ‘literally criminalizing standard medical care’, physicians say

Doctors are reacting with shock and fury to an Alabama supreme court decision that has shut down in vitro fertilization at the state’s largest infertility clinics.

Physicians said the decision, which ruled embryos are “extrauterine children”, grossly misunderstood reproductive medicine and was “devastating” for infertile patients.

“We made the impossible decision to pause new IVF treatments at our center, which is devastating for our patients and the state,” said Dr Mamie McLean, a fertility specialist at Alabama Fertility, which performed about 700 rounds of IVF in 2023.

“Our legal team is telling us that, as the ruling is written, that modern fertility treatments cannot continue in the state of Alabama because of the risk to physicians and embryologists, given that embryos are now considered children,” said McLean.