‘My embryos are not safe here’: US patients struggling with infertility struggle after Alabama IVF ruling

Tucker Legerski and his wife Megan have spent more than two years and tens of thousands of dollars trying to have a baby.

The Alabama couple, married since 2021, began in vitro fertilization (IVF) last year. After retrieving the eggs, a specialist combined those eggs with sperm to create four quality embryos. Last fall they successfully transferred one embryo, which resulted in a pregnancy, but after eight weeks it ended in a miscarriage. The couple planned to try an embryo transfer again in the fall.

But now, in the wake of an Alabama Supreme Court ruling that ruled that embryos are “ectopic children,” the Legerskis are unsure what will happen to their hopes of having children in Alabama. At least three Alabama IVF providers, including Legerskis’, have halted their IVF operations, leaving the Legerskis’ remaining three embryos in ice-cold storage.

“The three embryos that we have, that are currently frozen and that we can’t use right now, are very important to us and our best hope,” said Tucker Legerski. “I don’t know if we can afford another egg retrieval and transfer or create more embryos because of the emotional and financial costs.”

The Legerskis are far from the only expectant parents wondering what the future of IVF holds, both within Alabama and beyond. IVF patients and advocates in Alabama are scrambling to figure out what the ruling and subsequent halt to care means for their very time-sensitive plans. Outside of Alabama, people are terrified that similar restrictions could soon pop up in their state now that Alabama has found a job.

For many people struggling with infertility, uncertainty and powerlessness are familiar torments. But now, besides being they are at the mercy of biological and medical forces, and they feel it beset by politicians, lawyers and right-wing activists determined to entrench their belief that life begins when a sperm fertilizes an egg every aspect of American life.

“We’ve seen access to abortion slowly taken away and we’ve heard people say, ‘You don’t have to worry about IVF, IVF is safe and fine.’ And here’s an exact story that shows how IVF is bad, said Kristin Dillensnyder, an infertility coach who underwent IVF in Alabama and went on to have a daughter.

Since the ruling, Dillensnyder said she has heard from clients in South Carolina, where she now lives, who are terrified their state will be next. “When you’re in a red state, it actually feels like it’s only a matter of time,” she said.

Tara Harding, a doctoral physician and fertility coach based in North Dakota, has also heard from clients across the country since the ruling. They are no longer sure where to undergo IVF; they fear their embryos will become stuck in a condition that could limit the procedure. On Friday, Resolve: The National Infertility Association announced that embryo transfer services nationwide have indicated they will stop transporting embryos in and out of Alabama.

Harding previously traveled to Colorado to undergo IVF. “If I have to go through IVF again, I will go back to Colorado because I know my embryos are safe there,” Harding said. “They’re not safe here.â€

The Alabama ruling enshrines principles of “fetal personhood” in state law. The pursuit of fetal personhood, which aims to provide embryos and fetuses with full legal rights and protections, is a long-term goal of many in the anti-abortion movement, as opposition to abortion is based on the belief that life begins at conception. .

However, such protections can cause the perceived rights of embryos to conflict, even with the people who may be carrying them.

Alabama has long been a laboratory for measuring fetal personality. Between 1973 and 2022, when the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade, police in Alabama criminalized nearly 700 people for endangering “unborn life” – a record number of cases. In 2018, Alabama became the first state in the nation to include a fetal personhood clause in the state constitution after voters supported a measure to recognize “the rights of the unborn child,” including the right to life.

Many within the anti-abortion movement oppose IVF, in part because it can create embryos that are ultimately not used during the complex process. But many IVF patients never realized that a family-building process could end up in the crosshairs of abortion foes.

“I never thought IVF would be questioned,” said Gabrielle Goidel, an Alabama woman who began taking medication to prepare her body for egg retrieval on Friday, the same day as the Supreme Court ruling.

Goidel and her husband, Spencer, have already had to deal with some of the fallout from Roe’s overturn. While the couple lived in Texas, where almost all abortions are banned, Goidel suffered three miscarriages. During her second miscarriage, she went to the hospital and confirmed that the pregnancy had lost cardiac activity. Goidel wanted a D&C, a common procedure after a miscarriage. But a Texas doctor refused, Goidel said.

“He was very dismissive, said it was a complicated surgical procedure and he wasn’t going to do it – and then asked if he could pray with us,” she recalled.

On Thursday, Goidel’s supplier said it would stop carrying out IVF. She and her husband, Spencer, rushed to board a plane to Texas where they could continue the egg retrieval process.

When Roe was overturned, Spencer Goidel said, “There was at least an ability to believe like, ‘Okay, the side that’s against Roe v Wade, the side that wanted Roe v Wade to be overturned, is just pro-family. That’s what it is. They’re just pro-family.†And then this happens and you say, “Oh. Oh, so you’re actually not into family at all. This is religious fundamentalism.â€

A concurring opinion in the Alabama Supreme Court case, written by the court’s chief justice, repeatedly cited the Bible as justification for the court’s reasoning. Liberty Counsel, a conservative Christian legal organization, has already used the Alabama Supreme Court’s decision to argue in a Florida case that Florida’s state constitution, like Alabama’s, protects “an unborn child.”

But not all religious Christians agree with Alabama’s ruling. Rodney Miller is chairman of the board of Carrywell, an Alabama faith-based group that helps people cope with infertility, including through financial grants to people undergoing IVF. He says he and his wife relied on their faith to get them through their decade-long battle with infertility, which culminated in the adoption of frozen medicine. embryos his wife carried that led to twin toddlers. This past week, in the midst of Following the fallout from the ruling, the couple traveled to Tennessee to transfer embryos in hopes of having more children.

“Here we are with the advancement of medicine and science, we’re discussing in vitro fertilization and frozen embryos, and I think it’s a beautiful thing that God has given us with science, medicine and advancement,” Miller said. “It’s very disheartening to know that despite all that, Alabama seems to be going backwards.”

Both Democratic and Republican state lawmakers in Alabama are now drafting legislation to protect IVF. Alabama Governor Kay Ivey, a Republican, has also said she supports a solution that will protect the procedure.

But it’s still unclear what will happen next and how quickly change will come. Mallory Wear, Carrywell’s executive director, runs a support group for women dealing with infertility and who have had multiple miscarriages. The ruling has devastated them, she said.

“It was great to see people coming out and giving their opinions and really bringing awareness to infertility and the IVF process,” said Wear. But she added: “When you’re in the thick of it, every day counts.”