Out of the weird religious nuttery comes this decision from the Alabama Supreme Court.
Some parents undergoing in vitro fertlizatoin had embroyees stored at the Center of Reproductive Medicine, which were destroyed by a patient. The parents sued the Center for negligence on the basis that life begins at conception, not birth. The Supreme Court of Alabama ultimately got the case and ruled that the embroyees were minor children. PDF
That’s weird enough, but the justices used christian theology to justify their decision
Nothing says “rule of law” like citing a personal myth no one’s allowed to question as justification for an extremist interpretation of a law. That Christian privilege went underreported in stories about the ruling, even though, if a non-Christian used similar “logic,” it would be the sole focus of the story.
It’s telling that Parker uses “We” as synonymous with “The People of Alabama,” as if an Alabama law passed by conservative zealots truly represents everyone rather than a select group of fundamentalists, as if there’s nothing he can do to stop it, as if everyone belongs to the same faith… that also happens to be his own. (Last year, Parker welcomed Christian Nationalist Sean Feucht to the state with what amounted to a sermon celebrating Jesus.)
This is the same “pro-life” Supreme Court, by the way, that recently allowed a man to be executed by nitrogen hypoxia, an experimental method that had never before been tried on humans. (Parker dissented in that particular case but six of his colleagues were fine with it.) The execution was widely seen as a disaster.
So, let’s see. Banning IV or at least making it so risky that it would be prohibitive to be a clinic. Should those clinics store those frozen embryoees forever? If an accident happened, could the clinics or the person who caused the accident be sued for murder? If the parents break up, who pays for child support for the embroyo? Would this mean that a family that wanted a child would need to try to adopt from someone who was forced to give birth from circumstances of rape or incest? Related: if a woman has a miscarriage, is this manslaughter in Alabama?
Nothing says nuts like judges that think they can impose their christian beliefs which are wacky on everybody
Weird how all these concurrences keep citing Bible verses, but manage to never hit upon Exodus 21:22…
If people are fighting and hit a pregnant woman and she gives birth prematurely but there is no serious injury, the offender must be fined whatever the woman’s husband demands and the court allows.
This is right before the more famous “eye for an eye” provision, putting in sharp contrast that a fetus is a mere financial concern while a living person warrants the death penalty.
I guess the clerks just missed that one in their research.
Statement from President Biden
Today, in 2024 in America, women are being turned away from emergency rooms and forced to travel hundreds of miles for health care, while doctors fear prosecution for providing an abortion. And now, a court in Alabama put access to some fertility treatments at risk for families who are desperately trying to get pregnant. The disregard for women’s ability to make these decisions for themselves and their families is outrageous and unacceptable.
Make no mistake: this is a direct result of the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
I know that folks are worried about what they’re seeing happening to women all across America. I am too. I hear about it everywhere I go. My message is: The Vice President and I are fighting for your rights. We’re fighting for the freedom of women, for families, and for doctors who care for these women. And we won’t stop until we restore the protections of Roe v. Wade in federal law for all women in every state.
