A recent Alabama Supreme Court ruling declaring frozen embryos as “children” under state law has sent shockwaves through the legal, medical, and reproductive health communities. Experts warn the decision could severely limit access to in vitro fertilization (IVF) and other assisted reproductive technologies.
The February 16 decision stems from lawsuits filed by three sets of parents who underwent IVF and chose to freeze unused embryos for future use. In 2020, a hospital patient entered the fertility clinic through an unsecured door and accidentally destroyed several embryos. The parents sued for wrongful death, but a lower court dismissed their case. Now, Alabama’s highest court has reversed that decision, ruling the embryos were legally considered children, protected under the state’s Wrongful Death of a Minor Act.
“This ruling could have a chilling effect on IVF access,” says Nicole Huberfeld, a health law professor at Boston University School of Law and codirector of the university’s Program on Reproductive Justice. “We’re talking about frozen embryos—the size of a freckle—being classified as children without any new law passed by the state legislature.”
While the ruling is based on Alabama law and does not apply directly to other states, Huberfeld warns it may influence other courts, especially in states with similar “personhood” language in their constitutions or statutes.
“Though the decision appears narrow, it’s part of a broader legal landscape shaped by the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson ruling,” says Huberfeld. That landmark decision overturned Roe v. Wade, eliminating the federal right to abortion and paving the way for more aggressive state-level restrictions on reproductive rights.
In the immediate aftermath of the Alabama ruling, major fertility clinics in the state—including those affiliated with the University of Alabama at Birmingham and Alabama Fertility Services—announced they would pause IVF services. Providers fear they or their patients could face civil or criminal penalties for embryo loss or destruction, which are sometimes necessary parts of IVF.
IVF is a physically and emotionally demanding process that involves retrieving multiple eggs, fertilizing them in a lab, and implanting selected embryos in the uterus. Extra embryos are often frozen for later use, donation, or disposal—decisions that may now carry legal consequences under Alabama’s interpretation.
“This ruling makes IVF harder and riskier,” Huberfeld says. “Patients may try to create fewer embryos to avoid legal liability, but that might mean enduring more egg retrieval cycles—an invasive and costly process.”
According to the CDC, over 2 percent of U.S. births now result from assisted reproductive technologies. In 2021, nearly half of all ART cycles involved embryo or egg banking. The Alabama ruling places many of these practices in legal jeopardy and disproportionately affects older individuals, same-sex couples, and others who rely on fertility treatments to build their families.
“People who already face hurdles in accessing fertility care—financial, social, or medical—will now face even more uncertainty,” Huberfeld says. “This decision could deter people from pursuing IVF altogether.”
As legal experts and healthcare providers across the country watch closely, the ruling adds new urgency to debates over reproductive autonomy, personhood laws, and the future of fertility care in post-Dobbs America.
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