Alabama hospital to discontinue IVF after 2024

An Alabama hospital on Wednesday announced that it would discontinue in vitro fertilization (IVF) services at the end of the year due to the legal controversy surrounding the practice.

Multiple healthcare providers paused IVF treatments in the wake of a February decision by the state Supreme Court asserting that frozen embryos created through the process enjoy the same rights as "unborn children." GOP Gov. Kay Ivey, in March, signed a law providing legal protection for IVF providers, though that effort has evidently not calmed the nerves of some of them.

"In order to assist families in Alabama and along the Gulf Coast who have initiated the process of IVF therapy in the hopes of starting a family, Mobile Infirmary has temporarily resumed IVF treatments at the hospital," Mobile Infirmary stated. "However, in light of litigation concerns surrounding IVF therapy, Mobile Infirmary will no longer be able to offer this service to families after December 31, 2024."

Infirmary Health is the largest non-profit healthcare provider in the state and is based in Mobile and Baldwin Counties. It was a defendant in the state Supreme Court case.

Ben Whedon is an editor and reporter for Just the News. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter.