A request has been made by two Alabama couples to a judge for a ruling on the constitutionality of a state law that protects in vitro fertilization clinics from legal action. The couples had their embryos destroyed at a hospital in Mobile.
Last year, the state Legislature passed a law in response to the Alabama Supreme Court’s decision that caused a stir. The court’s ruling stated that embryos are entitled to the same legal protection as minors under the state’s Wrongful Death of a Minor Act, which sparked controversy.
In a 166-page brief filed on Monday in Mobile County Circuit Court, James and Emily LePage and William and Caroline Fonde argued that “These statutes constitute unlawful attempts at abrogating rights and remedies which were excepted out of governmental power when the People of Alabama voted in November 2018 to amend our Constitution’s Declaration of Rights with constitutional guarantees protecting unborn children.” They strongly believe that these statutes are depriving the citizens of Alabama of their constitutional rights and protections for unborn children.
The couples’ lawyers argue that these laws violate their fundamental rights, such as the right to life, the right to raise and care for their children, and the right to equal protection under Alabama law.
According to the lawyers, the legislation breached various sections of the Alabama Constitution, such as the right to seek a solution and the right to safeguard the couples’ demands from any retrospective legislation.
In their brief, the couples made a clear statement that the Alabama law must protect both unborn extrauterine children and their parents, and that all legal remedies, including those provided by the Wrongful Death of a Minor Act, should be available to them.
In 2021, the LePages, Fondes, and Scott Aysenne and Felicia Burdic-Aysenne filed separate lawsuits against the Center for Reproductive Medicine and Mobile Infirmary Medical Center. They claimed wrongful death, negligence, and breach of contract.
A hospital patient accidentally destroyed the embryos belonging to the couples by dropping the frozen specimens.
The LePages and Fondes have requested Mobile County Circuit Court Judge Jill Parrish Phillips to declare the IVF law unconstitutional.
In the ruling that frozen embryos are not children and throwing out the wrongful death claim, she sided against the couples. This judge remains the same.
According to Phillips’ ruling, Alabama’s laws and legal precedent show that a deep respect for the value of life has not hindered the state’s highest court from acknowledging and supporting the legislature’s consistent use of the term “in utero” (emphasis added) to describe an unborn or minor child, even in cases involving wrongful death.
The Alabama Supreme Court ruling caused controversy as it overturned her decision.
National headlines were drawn and IVF clinics began pausing their operations due to fear of prosecution in response to the high court’s decision.
At present, IVF clinics in Alabama are protected from legal action, thanks to legislation passed by the state’s legislature.
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