On Friday, the Supreme Court of Alabama ruled (in incredibly based fashion) that embryos, whether inside the womb or cryogenically frozen in fertility labs, are protected under the state's Wrongful Death of a Minor Act.

The case involved a couple who paid a fertility clinic to create and freeze two embryos for future implantation in the mother. In 2020, the clinic allowed an unauthorized patient into the embryo storage area where he accidentally killed the embryos. The couple sued the clinic for wrongful death, winning their case on Friday.

In the majority opinion, Justice Jay Mitchell writes that the Wrongful Death of a Minor Act explicitly includes unborn children and makes no exception for unborn children outside of the womb, concluding that "the Wrongful Death of a Minor Act applies to all unborn children, regardless of their location."

But it gets even better in the concurrences (ie. opinions authored by other judges in the majority adding opinion or context to their decision.) Chief Justice Tom Parker cited the Alabama Constitution, William Blackstone, Thomas Aquinas, John Calvin, and Jeremiah the prophet in making the case that protecting the sanctity of human life is mandatory for Alabama's civil authorities, and that states and nations are subject to God's wrath when they fail to do so.

In summary, the theologically based view of the sanctity of life adopted by the People of Alabama encompasses the following: (1) God made every person in His image; (2) each person therefore has a value that far exceeds the ability of human beings to calculate; and (3) human life cannot be wrongfully destroyed without incurring the wrath of a holy God, who views the destruction of His image as an affront to Himself. Section 36.06 recognizes that this is true of unborn human life no less than it is of all other human life -- that even before birth, all human beings bear the image of God, and their lives cannot be destroyed without effacing his glory."

Parker then concludes that the court must rule against the IVF clinic because:

The People of Alabama have declared the public policy ofthis State to be that unborn human life is sacred. We believe that each human being, from the moment of conception, is made in the image of God, created by Him to reflect His likeness. It is as if the People of Alabama took what was spoken of the prophet Jeremiah and applied it to every unborn person in this state: 'Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, Before you were born I sanctified you.' Jeremiah 1:5 (NKJV 1982). All three branches of government are subject to a constitutional mandate to treat each unborn human life with reverence. Carving out an exception for the people in this case, small as they were, would be unacceptable to the People of this State, who have required us to treat every human being in accordance with the fear of a holy God who made them in His image. For these reasons, and for the reasons stated in the main opinion, I concur."

To be clear, the ruling does not immediately prohibit IVF in Alabama. It simply allows parents to sue clinics if embryos die due to actions taken by the clinic. However, this might be as good as prohibiting IVF because killing excess and low-grade embryos is central to the IVF business model.

IVF Clinics Kill by the Millions

IVF is performed by collecting sperm from a father and eggs from a mother with which to create embryos in a lab. Clinics recommend creating numerous embryos because of the low success rate per embryo.

First, "low-grade" embryos (ie. those with recognizable defects or unwanted characteristics) are discarded and killed. Then, because of the low rate of success, numerous embryos are implanted in the mother in the hopes that at least one or two will survive, while the rest are put into long-term storage freezers. If more embryos survive than the parents desire to keep, selective reduction abortion is performed on as many babies as the parents do not want.

After the parents are done having children, leftover embryos are discarded, kept in long-term storage with little hope of a life outside the freezer, or sold to labs to be destroyed in research. Some Christians are seeking to rescue excess embryos by adopting those abandoned by their parents, but fertility clinics are creating excess embryos at a rate that likely cannot be fully matched by the embryo adoption movement.

Research from the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority found that women undergoing IVF have an average of 15 embryos created with 93 percent never even making it to implantation. Of the seven percent who do, many die due to the naturally low success rate of IVF implantation and selective reduction abortions. Ultimately, 30 embryos are created for every live birth! For this reason, as well as others, abolitionists unequivocally support the abolition of IVF.

Because killing embryos is central to the IVF industry's profitability, it is uncertain whether they will be able to do business in Alabama going forward, and the left knows it. Slate writer Mark Joseph Stern posted that "this unprecedented decision immediately imperils all IVF access throughout Alabama." Pro-abortion lawyer and congressional candidate Qasim Rashid said, "This absurd ruling is medical malpractice & will end IVF in AL."

For an IVF clinic to continue operating in Alabama, they would have to take on hugely increased insurance liability and cease all practices which often result in accidental deaths of embryos by only creating as many embryos at one time as the parents intend to implant immediately. It is difficult to imagine fertility clinics being able to maintain profitability with those conditions.

An amicus brief asking the Court to rule in favor of the IVF clinic argued that, "The Appellants’ position would result in physicians being potentially liable for wrongful death any time in vitro embryos fail to develop into a successful pregnancy. Such liability exposure would be devastating to the practice of IVF treatment in Alabama. Simply put, fertility specialists will not perform IVF in Alabama if they are faced with such potential wrongful death exposure."

Next Steps in Alabama

In most states, an abolition bill is the best way forward to abolishing abortion, and Alabama has one. State Rep. Ernie Yarbrough introduced the Abolition of Abortion in Alabama Act for the first time last year, a bill supported by our friends at End Abortion Alabama.

But this recent ruling opens up another avenue: abolition via the Alabama Supreme Court. A court willing to rule 8-1 against IVF with a Chief Justice willing to channel Isaiah in warning of God's judgment against societies that sacrifice children is a court that we need to provoke to take a look at pro-life laws which deny the right to life.

Like all other pro-life "abortion bans," the Alabama Human Life Protection Act establishes that "No woman upon whom an abortion is performed or attempted to be performed shall be criminally or civilly liable." This means that, while abortionists are prohibited from performing abortions upon a woman, she has the legal right to manage her own abortion, a practice which has been made easy by the internet. Because of this, in the 14 states, including Alabama, that have banned abortionists from performing abortions, the abortion rate is at least 85 percent of what it was prior to Roe being overturned.

This statutory right to self-managed abortion in the Alabama homicide code conflicts with the Alabama Constitution which establishes that, "

(a) This state acknowledges, declares, and affirms that it is the public policy of this state to recognize and support the sanctity of unborn life and the rights of unborn children, including the right to life.

(b) This state further acknowledges, declares, and affirms that it is the public policy of this state to ensure the protection of the rights of the unborn child in all manners and measures lawful and appropriate."

Rather than having their right to life protected in "in all manners and measures" as is Constitutionally mandated, 5,500 Alabama preborn children are murdered annually under color of law. After this incredibly strong ruling, it is time to see if the Alabama Supreme Court is up to the task of making Alabama the first state to protect preborn children from murder.