In a week, the number of clinics providing in vitro fertilization in Alabama has been nearly cut in half as a third provider announced on Thursday it was halting treatments, further limiting reproductive care for couples seeking medical help to have children, the Washington Post reports.
Since the state’s Supreme Court ruled on Friday that frozen embryos are legally children in Alabama, clinics providing IVF and freeze unused embryos for possible use at a future date have reviewed their practices for legal liability under the law. Of the state’s seven clinics, three have shut down entirely; three have stopped disposing of frozen embryos; and the status of the last one is unknown.
The IVF practice at the University of Alabama Hospital’s reproductive care clinic in Birmingham shut down on Wednesday. Later that day, a partner in the private practice Alabama Fertility confirmed they were ceasing operations. On Thursday, the Center for Reproductive Medicine in Mobile said it was closing.