Alabama Supreme Court will not revisit IVF case after controversial ruling

The Alabama Supreme Court on Friday declined to revisit its controversial ruling that determined that frozen embryos are considered babies under state law, and have the same rights as unborn children.

The February Supreme Court ruling determined that an 1872 statue that allowed parents to sue over the wrongful death of their children extends to frozen embryos. It came after three couples sued a fertility clinic when an employee dropped a case of their embryos, destroying them. The ruling triggered nation-wide backlash and even led some fertility clinics and hospitals to suspend their in vitro fertilization treatments.

Seven of the nine justices on the state Supreme Court rejected the request to revisit the ruling but did not offer commentary on its decision, according to the Associated Press. However, two justices said the case should be revisited so they could gather additional information.

“The majority opinion on original submission had significant and sweeping implications for individuals who were entirely unassociated with the parties in the case," Justice Will Sellers said in a dissenting opinion. "Many of those individuals had no reason to believe that a legal and routine medical procedure would be delayed, much less denied, as a result of this Court’s opinion."

Sellers noted that if they had agreed to rehear the case, there could have been oral arguments which would allow others to voice their concerns. Instead, because they denied the request, the precedent set by the ruling left people with no legal recourse, per AL.com.

The Medical Association of the State of Alabama and the Alabama Hospital Association supported the bid to revisit the historic ruling, claiming that it created uncertainty within the medical community that needed to be clarified. The request was brought by the Center for Reproductive Medicine and the Mobile Infirmary, who were the defendants in the original case.