Alabama hospital to stop IVF services at end of the year due to "litigation concerns"
Source: CBS News
April 4, 2024 / 12:26 PM EDT
An Alabama hospital says it is stopping IVF treatments at the end of 2024, citing litigation concerns. It follows a tumultuous few months in which the state's supreme court ruled that frozen embryos created through in vitro fertilization, or IVF, are considered children, and then a new state law was passed to offer more legal protection for IVF.
"In order to assist families in Alabama and along the Gulf Coast who have initiated the process of IVF therapy in the hopes of starting a family, Mobile Infirmary has temporarily resumed IVF treatments at the hospital. However, in light of litigation concerns surrounding IVF therapy, Mobile Infirmary will no longer be able to offer this service to families after December 31, 2024," says a statement shared Wednesday on the hospital's website.
The Mobile Infirmary Medical Center was the focus of two lawsuits from couples whose frozen embryos were dropped and destroyed in 2020. The court's decision to equate frozen embryos to children allowed the couples to sue for wrongful death of a minor. Experts at the time warned the first-of-its-kind decision could have broader implications as well.
The court ruling in February prompted the state's three major IVF providers to pause services and caused outcry from families, fertility experts and organizations who said Alabama's ruling could lead to a decrease in IVF access and care.
Read more: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/alabama-hospital-to-stop-ivf-embryos-mobile-infirmary/
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