Alabama Supreme Court Ruling Halts Mother’s IVF Journey, Frozen Embryos Now Legally Considered Children

Latorya Beasley was just days away from her IVF appointment when her appointment was canceled.

A Birmingham, Alabama, mother’s process of expanding her family through IVF has been halted following the state’s controversial Supreme Court ruling that frozen embryos are now legally considered children in Alabama.

Latorya Beasly opened up to People about her struggles with infertility, which led her to start IVF treatment in 2020.

The Mayo Clinic describes in vitro fertilization as a medical procedure where “mature eggs are collected from ovaries and fertilized by sperm in a lab. Then a procedure is done to place one or more of the fertilized eggs, called embryos, in a uterus, which is where babies develop. One full cycle of IVF takes about 2 to 3 weeks.”

After officially beginning her journey in 2021 and having a successful transfer leading to the birth of her first daughter in 2023, Beasley decided to make another doctor’s appointment to discuss having another round of IVF. She said she and her husband always knew they wanted children close in age, so she wasted no time preparing to embark on the journey again.

Beasley told People, “When we first started, everything was going pretty smoothly, but we started hearing some of the chatter that was going on in February 2024.”

“I started to get a little concerned, but of course, I’m a pretty typical American where we think that things don’t affect us. The week that we started prepping for transfer, my husband even commented, ‘Well, we’re on medicines now, surely it won’t affect us at all.’ We just never thought that it would really affect us, but it did.”

On Feb. 16, the Alabama Supreme Court officially ruled that frozen embryos are legally considered children. The repercussions of this decision meant that “no healthcare provider will be willing to provide treatments if those treatments may lead to civil or criminal charges.”

The ruling eventually led to Beasley’s clinic closing and her scheduled transfer being canceled.

Beasley expressed her disappointment. She said, “We were right there. I was literally just a couple of days out from the transfer.”

“Initially, it was just sadness,” she explained. “I think that’s kind of how infertility goes. You just kind of go on this range of emotions all the time. One day you’re high because you’re very hopeful, and then the next day you may be down because you get some type of news. So we were just very sad, but eventually, our sadness turned to just complete anger. But again, you don’t think that it’ll happen to you.”

Beasley admitted the ruling opened her eyes to the state of women’s reproductive rights.

“You start to wonder, well, what could be next? I think that was just what really ignited the anger, like how did we get here? How can we allow this to happen?”

“I’ll advocate. I’ll tell my story, as uncomfortable as it may be. I’ll tell it a thousand times if I have to.”

She’s committed to activism by telling her story to anyone who will hear it. Beasley said, “I just hope that they’ll hear my story and pay attention. I hope that they’ll get out and exercise their rights to vote because you have to protect just women’s fundamental rights.”