IVF care suspended as Alabama rules frozen embryo is a 'child'

Nikki Haley, the former US Ambassador to the United Nations, stated in an interview with NBC that she considers frozen embryos to be "babies," having used artificial insemination to have her son. This comment comes after the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos hold the same legal rights as living children, allowing two wrongful death lawsuits to proceed. The University of Alabama at Birmingham hospital has suspended IVF treatment in the state due to this ruling, and providers are seeking legal advice while some patients are reportedly looking to move their embryos out of state. This ruling has opened up a new front in the US battle over reproductive medicine. The hospital will continue retrieving eggs from women's ovaries but has halted the next step in the IVF process, where the eggs are fertilized with sperm before being implanted into the uterus.