The Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos are “children.”
Since last year, Jasmine York, 34, and her husband have been trying to have a baby. The couple, both nurses, began freezing embryos before they got married in March 2023.
York had her first embryo transfer in August 2023, but the transfer failed, she told ABC News.
Determined to grow their family, the couple tried again, and they are currently undergoing their second round of in-vitro fertilization, or IVF.
But, after the Alabama Supreme Court issued a new decision last week ruling that frozen embryos are considered children, they say their embryo transfer appointment scheduled for March 20 was canceled by her hospital.
The ruling itself is terrible, but I’m not sure about considering not being inseminated to be ‘heartbreak’
If it’s the only way they had hope of having children ‘of their own’ and that’s important to them, it would easily be deemed heartbreak to have the process lag or seize in any way.
If you spend time (often years) + money (tens of thousands) + putting your body through treatments (hormone therapy to harvest eggs) + significant emotional investment to achieve any very personal goal (to carry a child into your family) only to have that taken away, heartbreak is one of the most appropriate descriptors.
If you were a woman you’d know why it’s heartbreaking. A society that raises you to believe you’re completely worthless as a woman unless you have umpteen kids, it’s no wonder so many women say they feel suicidal after learning they can’t bear kids or need additional help to get pregnant.