Advocates on both sides of the fight over access to reproductive rights are gearing up for an expected debate this year over whether and how lawmakers should create new protections for access to in-vitro fertilization.
Alabama lawmakers rushed to protect in vitro fertilization services after fertility clinics shut down in the wake of a ruling that frozen embryos are children under the state wrongful death law.
An Alabama Supreme Court ruling that frozen embryos can be considered "extrauterine children" under state law has major implications for how in vitro fertilization, commonly called IVF, is performed. Since the first successful in vitro fertilization pregnancy and live birth in 1978, nearly half a million babies have been born using IVF in the United States. Reproductive endocrinologist Amanda Adeleye explains the science behind IVF, the barriers to accessing it and her concerns about fertility treatment in the post-Roe landscape.
New companies are working to commercialize in vitro gametogenesis, or IVG, a technology that could make human eggs and sperm in the lab from any cell in the body.
Only 15 states require insurance to cover in vitro fertilization, a pricey path to parenthood. But expensive procedures and drugs can lead to unexpected bills even for the fortunate who are insured.
