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While Roe hasn’t been officially overturned, it does appear that the Supreme Court will make the decision to overturn the law. That means the topic of abortion and its legality will be up to each state to decide. But it’s not just abortion rights that are affected by the change. The ability for a woman to receive IVF treatments may also be at risk.
A lot of women and couples have frozen embryos from IVF treatments. Those embryos can remain frozen for a long time, and be used at a later date. But if Roe is overturned, destroying unused embryos may become illegal in a significant number of states. That could lead to harsher laws around IVF, rising costs, and clinics that are forced to shut down.
In states that choose to give legal rights to embryos, parents would be very limited in what they could do with those embryos as the parents move through the IVF process. Destroying extra embryos may no longer be an option, and could even result in murder charges under the extreme laws that some states want to create.
The passage of laws, along with the resulting legal challenges that come from passing new laws, could go on for many years. That means that assisted reproduction wouldn’t likely be affected right away. But it’s something that anyone using IVF, or planning to use it in the future, may want to carefully consider.
New state regulations would be put into place, and that could mean rising costs and some significant overhauls in what’s legally allowed. Because medications are provided during IVF to create more eggs and help the couple produce more embryos, a lot of people don’t realize that many embryos are discarded. A lot of these embryos aren’t viable, or have abnormalities. Discarding them makes sense.
But for those fully on board with fetal “personhood,” even a non-viable embryo may be seen to have rights. That’s a fight that many couples focused on growing their families just don’t want to get involved in.
At The Surrogacy Law Center, we advise and counsel clients on a variety of matters related to egg, sperm, and embryo donation, and surrogacy. When you work with an experienced reproductive rights attorney, you can have the peace of mind that comes with knowing you have contractually protected your rights. To learn more, contact us today!
