CV NEWS FEED // Republican Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey signed a bill into law that will grant legal immunity to the state’s in-vitro fertilization (IVF) industry after a coalition of pro-life leaders urged her to veto the legislation.
Ivey regards herself as a pro-life governor and claimed SB 159 is consistent with her state’s “culture of life.”
“Alabama works to foster a culture of life and that certainly includes IVF,” she wrote in a statement posted to X (formerly Twitter) Wednesday. “Let me say clearly, Alabama supports growing families through IVF. From protecting the unborn to supporting IVF, Alabama is proud we are a pro-life, pro-family state.”
The Catholic News Agency (CNA) noted that “[m]illions of preborn children have been killed or indefinitely frozen through the IVF process since the 1980s.” IVF is “opposed by the Catholic Church because it separates the marriage act from procreation and destroys embryonic human life.”
>> CV PRESIDENT AND ALLIES SIGN LETTER URGING GOV. IVEY TO VETO IVF BILLS <<
Earlier this week, CatholicVote President Brian Burch and a dozen other pro-life leaders penned a letter calling on Ivey to veto SB 159 and its companion bill, HB 237.
They wrote that the bills “would grant civil and criminal immunity to ‘any individual or entity providing goods or services related to in vitro fertilization’ even if their actions cause death or damage to embryos created through IVF.”
The letter continued:
If enacted this sweeping legislation would slam the door on any protections for the most vulnerable Alabamians, prevent families from seeking justice for the death or harm caused to their children, and leave a trail of destructive, immoral implications in its wake.
>> ‘ACTING OUT OF FEAR’: ALABAMA REPUBLICANS PASS PRO-IVF BILL <<
As CatholicVote previously reported, SB 159 and HB 237 “came less than two weeks after the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos conceived via IVF are children with human rights under state law.”
CatholicVote continued:
Although the ruling did not explicitly prohibit IVF in the state, defenders of the controversial practice claimed it effectively did.
Reports indicate that several IVF facilities in Alabama “paused” operations in the wake of the landmark decision.
Both bills overwhelmingly passed in their respective chambers, with almost all Republican legislators voting in favor.
In particular, SB 159 passed the Senate by a unanimous vote of 34-0.
