On Friday, Feb. 16, the Alabama Supreme Court ruled frozen embryos should have some of the same legal protections as human children. The ruling has severe implications for in vitro fertilization (IVF), which freezes and uses embryos to help women become pregnant. Alabama Chief Justice Tom Parker, citing the Book of Genesis, argued that IVF is an affront to God, and Republicans in the Senate have already blocked a Democratic attempt to protect the IVF process after the ruling.

Straight Arrow News contributor Jordan Reid explains the IVF process, why it’s important, and why she believes it must be protected. She also wonders what the term “pro-life” really means after the Alabama ruling.

Let’s talk about the term “pro-life.” Because I’m just not sure we’re all on the same page about what exactly it means. I mean, I would call myself “pro-life.” As an example, I am pro-lifesaving health care for pregnant women. I am pro-people, women included, being afforded the agency to live their lives as they see fit. I know. It’s just revolutionary.

We all knew that the Dobbs decision would have far-reaching consequences for women’s health care, which, yes, does include abortion. And now we have one of what I will imagine be many, many, many examples of just how far our government is willing to go to control women’s bodies.

In the state of Alabama, which already has some of the nation’s strictest abortion laws, the Supreme Court recently ruled that frozen embryos — you know the ones that are used during in vitro fertilization treatments that give thousands of people across the nation every year the chance to become parents — well, they ruled that those frozen embryos are people and cannot be destroyed. Specifically, they held that “unborn children are children.” No. And that frozen embryos should be given the same protections as babies under the Wrongful Death of a Minor Act.

This is all under the umbrella of the personhood movement, which holds that fetuses or, I guess, embryos, should be granted legal rights at virtually the moment of conception.