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After the Alabama Supreme Court passed the IVF ruling, President Joe Biden criticized the decision taken by the court and blamed former President Donald Trump for the same. The statement from Joe Biden came just a day after the University of Alabama notified the masses about pausing their IVF treatments due to the court’s decisions.
In a statement issued on Thursday, February 22, 2024, Biden condemned the Alabama high court’s ruling and stated how it was a “direct result” of Roe v. Wade.
He blamed Trump for rolling back the abortion rights, and stated:
“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.”
He continued:
"The disregard for women’s ability to make these decisions for themselves and their families is outrageous and unacceptable.”
In his statement, the US President also vowed to protect “women’s reproductive rights.”
The largest hospital in the state issued a statement that read:
"We are saddened that this will impact our patients' attempt to have a baby through IVF, but 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.”
The statements came just after the Alabama Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday and stated that “unborn children are children,” and any person destroying these embryos will be lawfully dealt with.
"Ask who's to blame”: Kamala Harris blames Donald Trump as Alabama High Court passes strict ruling against IVF
As the state court’s ruling prompted many medical institutions including Alabama University to pause IVF, it prompted a statement from the Vice President of the USA, Kamala Harris too, who blamed “the previous President of the United States,” as she said:
"Ask who's to blame. And I'll answer that question: When you look at the fact that the previous president of the United States was clear in his intention to hand-pick three Supreme Court justices who would overturn the protections of Roe v. Wade. And he did it. And that's what got us to this point today."
Furthermore, apart from Biden and Harris, many other political leaders, citizens of the US and even social media users talked about the implications of this ruling for Alabama’s fertility patients. As per BBC, the ruling does not place a ban on IVF, however, since the ruling states that the embryo is a person, the ruling increases the responsibility of the clinics about how they use and store them.
Moreover, the White House linked this ruling with the overturned Roe v. Wade ruling, and claimed that it is “exactly the type of chaos that we expected when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade.”
As the US presidential elections get near, Biden and Harris are challenging Donald Trump. They mentioned in their statement that if Trump returns in 2024, "reproductive rights of the women will be in question." As of right now, neither Donald Trump nor any of his aides have commented on the issue or the opinions of the general public and political figures.
