UAB Becomes First in Alabama to Stop In Vitro Fertilization

The University of Alabama at Birmingham health system is pausing in vitro fertilization procedures — the first in the state to do so after the state Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos should be considered children.

Medical experts warned the decision could limit access to IVF all through the state, AL.com reported.

A statement from UAB spokeswoman Hannah Echols said the health system is “saddened” for patients who want to have babies through IVF, AL.com reported.

“We must evaluate the potential that our patients and our physicians could be prosecuted criminally or face punitive damages for following the standard of care for IVF treatments,” Echols wrote in an email, the outlet reported.

The process, which involves fertilizing eggs outside the body and then transferring embryos to the womb, accounts for about 2% of births in the United States, Dr. Zev Williams, director of the Columbia University Fertility Center, told CNN.

The pause by UAB Division of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility comes in the wake of Alabama’s Feb.16 ruling that frozen embryos had the same status as children in wrongful death lawsuits.

A majority of justices on the state’s Supreme Court ruled fertilized eggs and embryos have the same status as children — and referred to embryos, which are often stored in cryogenic freezers, as “extrauterine children.”

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