An uptick in state personhood bills fuels growing fears over IVF restrictions
By: NBC News
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Feb. 23, 2024, 11:48 PM UTCBy Adam Edelman
Following the recent Alabama Supreme Court ruling that embryos created through in vitro fertilization are considered children, reproductive rights groups are sounding the alarm over so-called fetal personhood bills in more than a dozen other states they say could be interpreted to restrict IVF treatments if enacted.
As of Friday, fetal personhood bills had been introduced in at least 14 state legislatures during their ongoing 2024 sessions, according to the Center for Reproductive Rights and the Guttmacher Institute, research groups that advocate for abortion rights. It marks the latest phase in an uptick in such bills since the U.S. Supreme Court's 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization decision overturned the national right an abortion in the U.S.
"Since Dobbs, we have seen a marked increase in personhood bills introduced in state legislatures across the country," Elisabeth Smith, the director of state policy and advocacy at the Center for Reproductive Rights, said in a statement to NBC News.
"What's happened in Alabama is extreme, but it is not happening in a vacuum. This is the chaos created by the Dobbs decision," she added.
For years, anti-abortion lawmakers at the state and federal levels have pushed for personhood laws, which aim to establish that an embryo or fetus should have the full rights of a person based on the idea that life begins at conception.
Reproductive rights groups have long warned that such proposals could be interpreted by judges in ways that could restrict or effectively ban IVF.
Prior to the 2022 Dobbs ruling, personhood efforts were in large part designed to chip away at abortion rights. While reproductive rights advocates were concerned by them, the ability of such measures to go any further remained largely theoretical due to the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling, which kept in place a nationwide standard to protect abortion rights.
Even before the Dobbs ruling, at least 11 states had on their books broad personhood laws or policies, largely designed to augment homicide and assault statutes in cases where the victim was pregnant, according to reproductive rights nonprofit group Pregnancy Justice.
But with the landmark Roe ruling protecting those rights gone, efforts by conservative lawmakers and judges to advance fetal personhood bills pose a real threat to some fertility treatments, including IVF, reproductive rights advocates say.
The Alabama Supreme Court's decision this month finding that frozen embryos created through IVF are considered children under state law — meaning that people could theoretically be sued for destroying an embryo — made those threats even more abundantly clear and elevated concerns that proposals elsewhere could manifest similar outcomes.
Among the newly proposed bills is one in Florida that would establish a right for parents to sue for civil damages for the "wrongful death" of an "unborn child."
The bill would allow such suits when the death is caused by "wrongful act, negligence, default, or breach of contract or warranty" — leading some opponents to fear that the language could be interpreted to include the destruction of embryos.
The proposed legislation explicitly states that a "mother" can't be sued under the law — but no protections exist for anyone else, including medical and health care professionals.
Republican lawmakers in Florida proposed an amendment to the bill, the same week as the Alabama ruling, to define "unborn child" as a human "at any stage of development, who is carried in the womb." The change would likely protect IVF patients and doctors, but it remains uncertain whether it would be in any final version the full Legislature were to vote on.
Republicans have proposed the bill in both the Florida House and Senate. The bill's House sponsor, state Rep. Jenna Persons-Mulicka, said in a statement to NBC News that the bill "is not intended to and does not impact IVF in Florida."
"Our proposed bill is very different than the Alabama law," she added.
The bill's sponsor in the Senate, state Sen. Erin Grall, didn't respond to questions from NBC News about the bill.
The list of state bills proposed this year also includes one in Kansas that would make it legal for pregnant people to claim child support for their unborn children at any point after conception.
The bill clarifies the term "unborn child" as both a human "in utero" as well as a human "at any state of gestation from fertilization to birth," creating questions about how a final version could be interpreted by a conservative court.
In Kansas, bills are initially introduced by legislative committees, not individual lawmakers. State Sens. Mike Thompson and Rick Kloos, the chair and vice chair of the Federal and State Affairs Committee, which introduced the bill, did not respond to questions about the proposal.
Elsewhere, Republican lawmakers in Colorado and Iowa introduced bills this year that would define personhood as beginning at fertilization, for the purposes of those states' homicide, wrongful death and assault laws — with no exceptions for embryos created by IVF.
"We know that personhood is and has been a goal of the anti-abortion movement, and there are often attempts to further establish it via several different routes. The efforts around establishing personhood further impact criminalization of pregnancy outcomes and self-managed abortion, as well as stigmatize IVF care and other assisted reproductive methods, which are already heavily stigmatized and often inaccessible due to cost," said Maya Cherins, a spokesperson for the Guttmacher Institute.
Other states where lawmakers have proposed various fetal personhood bills in the current legislative sessional include Alaska, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Massachusetts, Missouri, New York, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Utah, according to the Center for Reproductive Rights and the Guttmacher Institute, which are both tracking such proposals.
Representatives for the groups noted that there are several different categories of laws already in effect, making it difficult to predict which ones could be subject to interpretations straying from their intent.
For example, many states have laws on the books that allow people to sue for damages in the event of the wrongful death of a fetus, though most of them feature clarifying language that the fetus must be viable (typically around 24 weeks of pregnancy).
Other states have protected personhood with exceptionally nuanced legal distinctions. Louisiana, for instance, has had a law on the books since 1986 establishing that an embryo is a "juridical person" but not a "legal person" — a fine legal distinction proponents of the law claim is designed specifically to ban the destruction of embryos.
But in recent years, at least four states have enacted robust personhood laws.
In Georgia, a 2019 six-week abortion ban that took effect after Roe was struck down includes a provision allowing a pregnant woman to declare her fetus with a detectable heartbeat (around six weeks in some cases) as a dependent on her state taxes.
In Missouri, state law broadly defines life as beginning "at conception," and says that every "unborn child at every stage of development" is afforded "all the rights, privileges, and immunities available to other persons, citizens, and residents" of the state. But interpretation of the statue has prompted thorny legal questions.
An Arizona personhood law from 2021 would define any biological phase after conception, including fetuses, embryos, and fertilized eggs as "people." The law remains blocked by the courts.
And in 2018, in Alabama, voters passed an amendment to the state constitution that established that state policy recognized and supported "the sanctity of unborn life and the rights of unborn children, including the right to life" and to "ensure the protection of the rights of the unborn child in all manners and measures lawful and appropriate" — a measure that the state Supreme Court relied on, in part, in reaching its decision last week.
The decision, said Planned Parenthood Southeast President Carol McDonald, "could ripple across the country on the state and federal level as personhood laws proliferate."
Adam Edelman is a political reporter for NBC News.
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thumpers have breached the wall of separation and it's time to defend the constitution.
I just saw something about the Heritage Foundation scumbags - 'literally said their conservative policy goal was ending recreational sex'
"It seems to me that a good plan to start would be a feminist movement against the pill and for returning to the consequentiality to sex. Conservatives have to lead the way in restoring sex to its true purpose and ending recreational sex and senseless use of birth control"
'a good PLACE to start'
I hate that I can't edit my comments
thumper scumbags don't have time for recreational sex while monitoring everybody else's sex life...
... along with teaching sex ed to the underaged in sunday school...
their particular cult's warped biblical versions...
those frigid bitches and dicks don't want anyone else having what they aren't getting
bodily autonomy equality for women needs to be the key issue for 2024, because those opposed are the common enemy of all freedom loving americans.
the assault on women's rights by xtian nationalists is a hate crime...
their threats against the health and lives of all women need to be fully reciprocated and executed.
hang all of their unpopular wedge issue yokes around the neck of the GOP and then push them into the deep end of the political pool.
Deeper and deeper into not just the middle ages any more, but to The Inquisition.
We warned everyone what a slippery slope this would be. And here we are.
But
I'm willing to bet that when the tax revenue goes down, they'll decide that embryos aren't people, after all.
Absolutely. What's to stop someone from harvesting a dozen eggs and freezing them, and then claiming them as dependents on their income taxes. Makes a lot of sense to do so.
It's fairly common during IVF to harvest and fertilize many eggs, and not all of those fertilized eggs are transferred to the uterus. If all of them are transferred, you could easily end up with another Octomom.
So a few are implanted, and the rest stored for later attempts, if the pregnancy doesn't work out.
Those couples should now be allowed to claim their frozen embryos, which may or may not ever be implanted into anybody's uterus, as dependents for tax purposes.
Speaking of Octomom, what happens if, as has happened several times, many embryos implant successfully? Most Ob/Gyns would recommend selective abortion to reduce the risks to the mother and give the remaining embryos a greater chance of survival. Will this law now prohibit that, endangering mom and ALL of the implanted embryos? Is that pro-life?
This silliness could change people's age.
If I move to Alabama, I can retire almost a year sooner, thanks to qualifying for Medicare at 64 and a few months.
... and you'd probably be the smartest person in the county.
I'd say not just the county, but the whole state.
100+ mile radius...
According to Tommy Tuberville we should be all in on this legislation, because we need more kids … frozen, microscopic ones.
I saw the footage of a reporter crossing that idiot up on the IVF issue and clearly illustrating what a maga moron he is...
no worries, tuberville is too fucking stupid to know the difference between a bill and an alabama supreme court ruling, or when he contradicts himself on camera...
a southern college football coach is at the top of the gene pool for representing the state in the US senate...
4 incidents of inbreeding in 4 generations is automatic entitlement to a gov't job in white gooberbama...
hey, how come all the white girls in that college sorority look alike...
2 thumper morons is alabama's senate representation...
The US has reached a level when were are equal to the middle ages.
combine the IVF issue with the draconian anti-choice legislation that's becoming rampant, and november is looking pretty bad for republicans. bummer, huh? I'd like to thank all the thumpers that made it possible...
the new 21st century crusaders will fail, just like the many previous attempts.
And Trump may have just "shot himself in the foot" (to coin a phrase):
And IMO this single issue will result in the Dems winning the presidency (regardless of whom the nominees of both parties eventually turn out to be)!
he needs to aim a lot higher.
An embryo is a person? I’m pretty sure we don’t have a viable way to freeze a person, thaw them out, and then they go back to living.
I wonder what the charges will be if somebody accidentally unplugs a freezer where embryos are stored? Or drops them while carrying them across the lab? Manslaughter? If some distracted driver clips a utility pole and causes a power outage, can he or she be charged with vehicular manslaughter if some embryos thaw out? Even if they're miles away from the scene of the crash?
I don't think that we will see any prosecutions after this silly ruling.
I just read that the Alabama AG has said that he will not prosecute persons who obtain IVF or providers of it. Maybe some members of the GoP are discovering that the conservatives are causing the GoP to commit suicide, and they don't even need guns to do it.
He might not. Another AG might, if the law remains on the books as written.
the false equivalency bureau from the local evangelical madrasa will call it a mass murder.
won't this law turn every rwnj circle jerk into a mass murder scene?
LE found a box of tissues and some lotion at the crime scene. it was premeditated murder...
Um....the sperm must meet the egg to form an embryo. Maybe assault?
we're talking about people that want to hold funerals for tampons...
omg
get all thumpers off the bench.
... and into a trench.
Law & Order SVU and other Law & Order episodes have covered this issue, these types of issues in the past, I imagine they're working on some new episodes now.
No fucking way
child abandonment
Yes, because republican prosecutors are known for keeping their word.
Maybe that depends on what the "word" is.
It worked with Han Solo
Yeah, but he was encased in carbonite, and was pretty much blind and helpless when he woke up.
lol
He was so cocky (but I loved it) before he was encased in carbonite, Leah said 'I love you' and he said 'I know'
Assuming the above is an accurate description of what Alabama is doing it is just another case of Republicans saying "please vote for democrats in the upcoming elections".
By saying an embryo is a person, the Alabama Supreme Court has effectively halted all IVF in the state and damn near criminalized miscarriages which are 40-50% of all pregnancies.
senate republicans blocked IVF protection because it clashes with thumper forced birth personhood bullshit.
The Dems really need to hammer this point home this November.
... with a real big hammer.
every issue that the GOP is on the wrong side of public opinion needs to be hung around their necks like yokes and then they should be led to the deep end of the political pool...
These outcomes clearly show that uber-religious populists don't understand science and can't think past the end of their own nose. The scramble by Republicans to put as much distance between themselves and the fanatics may not work as well as they'd like during an election year.
at this rate it goes internecine around the 4th of july...
... which will be hilarious.
mega churches could become even more hazardous to be around...
... for thumpers anyway.
I'd be lying if I said I wasn't very entertained by the seemingly unending foibles of the GOP this year, especially all the political friendly fire incidents leading up to the election by the thumper faction. add to that the total willingness of trump to send his most gullible cultists into harms way if he's not elected, is the proverbial frosting on the cake.
hobbled by the holy, LOL...
thumpers have overplayed their hand.
and now it's time to press all the bets against them...
after watching the next dean of the drama dept at thumper U in alabama give her rwnj/sotu response, while working thru her sexual fantasies, I have even less respect for women republicans.
What the Michelle Duggar sappy-voiced nonsense was that bullshit?
that staged performance was specifically directed towards the dipshits that buy into the rest of the xtian nationalist bullshit. the only things missing from her kitchen background shot was her bare feet and a pregnant profile. she's even taking a beating over it in the rwnj media.
as a bonus, watching mike johnson get bent over on national TV is so humorous it borders on childhood nostalgia for me. a preacher's son getting the holy spirit on the elementary school playground and then waiting for the janitorial staff to retrieve his trousers from the tree they'd been suspended, in full view of the classroom windows on the playground side of the building.
fucking thumpers are way over-represented in american government and are a threat to democracy.
their unconstitutional activities divide americans and have cost america trillions in damages.
a lot of my thoughts exactly - she was orgasmic many times during - whatever the fuck that was - plus all the projection, deflection, denial + delusion is absolutely pscyho
Mike Johnson bent over - I imagine that's one of his favorite positions along with on his knees
'getting bent over'
[✘]
as a full fledged thumper, shouldn't she have a lot more than 2 children...
like 5 or 6...
seems they sure do like those impromptu religious gatherings followed by a buffet lunch...
Florida was ready to pass a ''Personhood'' bill and they were warned that what you saw in Alabama would possibly happen here, did they listen, oh hell no, and when the Alabama decision came down panic in River City with the Republicans and they have stalled the bill.
pretty hard to collect bribes when you don't work at the statehouse anymore...
I don't see that happening, but now I wonder what the statistics are on gun ownership by women in the last few decades.
I saw a post on FB 'You wouldn't try to regulate my VAGINA if it fired bullets'
no shit.
no worries, most have proven they can't find the trigger for one of those...
Won’t be long before being a woman is criminal.
... garden of eden.
... some nonsense about a talking snake...
... and then generations of pedophilia and incest, all documented in the old testament.
If Alabama says an embryo is a person, then they should start paying retirement earlier.
it's the south. start buying them up and take the federal child tax credits for as long as they stay embryos...
... if the taxman says anything, question his faith, and then state you're not ready for children just yet...
we'll both be dead before the thumper SCOTUS can untangle the knots they've left in the judicial system....
Scarlett Johannson trying to overact didn't overact as badly as Katie Britt did.
that's for sure. my poor high school drama teacher is probably spinning in her grave. RIP marjean...
I can't believe there's people breathing that are still buying into that melodramatic bullshit...
oh wait, they're thumpers, never mind ...
feedlot humans.