February 21, 2024

Thanks to an Alabama Supreme Court decision that embryos are humans, chaos has ensued in the state -- and in other conservative states, who fear similiar decisions. Couples have crammed into online support groups wondering if they should transfer frozen embryos out of state, and attorneys are warning that divorce settlements that call for frozen embryos to be destroyed may now be void. Via the Washington Post:

Throughout Alabama, there is widespread shock, anger and confusion over how to proceed after the state Supreme Court ruled Friday that frozen embryos are people, a potentially far-reaching decision that could upend women’s reproductive health care in a state that already has one of the nation’s strictest abortion laws.

“Women who actually know what happened, they feel under attack and almost powerless,” said AshLeigh Meyer Dunham, a Birmingham mother who conceived a child through in vitro fertilization and is a partner in a law firm that specializes in assisted reproductive technology cases. “First you had the Dobbs decision and now this. What does this even mean?”

The state Supreme Court decision signals a new chapter in America’s fight over reproductive rights and marks another blow to women’s rights groups that expect similar challenges in other conservative states. The ruling is limited to Alabama, but legal experts say it could embolden the “personhood movement,” which asserts that unborn children should be granted legal rights beginning at conception.

Just crazy, as usually happens when Christianists decide their religion's cult rules should be applied universally.

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