Pro-Life Groups Ask Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey to Veto IVF Bill Failing to Protect Human Embryos

CatholicVote President Brian Burch and other pro-life leaders penned a letter to Republican Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey on Monday urging her to veto two bills aimed at giving the state’s in-vitro fertilization (IVF) industry legal immunity.

In the letter, the coalition of over a dozen pro-life advocates indicated that it opposes the passage of HB 237 and SB 159, which are both currently headed to Ivey’s desk.

The leaders stated that the legislation “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.”

“If enacted,” the letter explained,

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.

“We urge you to veto this legislation,” the letter emphasized.

“It is an indisputable scientific fact that human life begins at the moment of fertilization,” the leaders pointed out.

They went on to outline how supporting the rights of human embryos is integral to the aims of the pro-life movement.

“A child in the embryonic stage of development is of incalculable value to his or her family, and though young, is not of any less worth to their parents than a child at three months in the womb, nine months in the womb, or after the very moment of birth,” the pro-life coalition wrote:

Click here to sign up for pro-life news alerts from LifeNews.com

Both science and logic have made it clear that embryos must be accorded the same human rights and level of dignity that all other human beings — at every developmental stage of life — are granted.

By extension, the leaders cautioned that HB 237 and SB 159 would “withdraw existing legal protections for Alabama’s most vulnerable persons, simply because those persons were created through IVF.”

“[The legislation] would provide blanket civil and criminal immunity even for criminal and intentionally tortious acts committed in connection with IVF,” they noted. They stated that the bills could theoretically provide immunity to:

a doctor who secretly uses his own sperm to create embryos, deliberately implants someone else’s child into a different IVF mother’s womb, or intentionally destroys the embryos he creates against the wishes of the parents.

Live Action Foundress and President Lila Rose was the letter’s lead signatory.

Per Live Action, other signatories included “Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life; … Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America; and Jeanne F. Mancini, president of March for Life Action, among others.”

As CatholicVote reported last week:

The Alabama House passed the pro-IVF HB 237 by the near-unanimous margin of 96-to-4. Three members abstained from the vote. The vast majority of the state’s House Republicans voted in favor of the bill.

Meanwhile, the Alabama Senate passed HB 159 unanimously. Both chambers of the state’s legislature have Republican supermajorities.

CatholicVote further noted that the “legislation 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.”

Shortly following the court’s ruling, Ivey voiced her support for IVF and the then-planned series of bills to protect its availability in the state.

“Following the ruling from the Alabama Supreme Court, I said that in our state, we work to foster a culture of life,” Ivey stated on February 23.

“This certainly includes some couples hoping and praying to be parents who utilize IVF,” she claimed at the time. “[Republican state] Senator Tim Melson, along with Senate and House members, are working on a solution to ensure we protect these families and life itself.”

Melson was the sponsor of SB 159.

LifeNews Note: Joshua Mercer writes for CatholicVote, where this column originally appeared.

The post Pro-Life Groups Ask Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey to Veto IVF Bill Failing to Protect Human Embryos appeared first on LifeNews.com.