A mother from Northern California is upset that her intended pregnancy may be in peril due to an Alabama State Supreme Court ruling regarding embryos.
Recently, an Alabama court decided that embryos are entitled to the same rights as children. The decision permits families who have lost frozen embryos to file wrongful death lawsuits against institutions.
Fertility clinics have been forced to cease treatments while they handle the legal ramifications due to the chilling impact it has had.
Legislators in Alabama are developing policies to safeguard the state’s in vitro fertilization (IVF) services.
Meanwhile, a mother in Lincoln, California exclusively tells FOX40.com that her embryo is at a facility in Alabama, and she and her boyfriend are working nonstop to get it back. This means that her last shot at having a biological child is in jeopardy.
According to Heather Maurer, who spoke with FOX40.com, she was approximately four weeks away from receiving her second embryo transfer. She intended to return to Florida after her husband’s summer retirement and raise her two young boys there.
Her hopes were dashed, though, when she saw an article about the Alabama court verdict and got a call right away from her doctor.
Maurer worries that she will never become pregnant again. “Right now, we’re just at a loss.” We’re not sure what to do,” Maurer remarked.
For three years, Maurer and her spouse Christopher attempted to conceive. Maurer described the experience as extremely taxing as all of the tests and procedures carried out produced negative results.
The couple visited the University of Alabama at Birmingham in December 2020 as a last-ditch effort to become parents after learning about in vitro fertilization.
“I was able to get 11 eggs. Out of the eleven, seven underwent fertilization and three of those seven produced embryos. Genetic testing revealed that only two of those three were viable, the speaker stated.
One of those embryos gave rise to Maximus, the couple’s first child and firstborn male, who was born in the summer of 2022 at Sutter Health in Roseville, 19 months ago.
“After nearly 14 years of marriage, he told me that becoming a mother and having Maximus would be the happiest thing you have ever done,” Maurer remembers her husband saying.
They had no desire to hold out for another kid. Just one month ago, Maurer was given the all-clear to transfer her last embryo following a treatment meant to get her ready for another pregnancy.
Maximus’s parents wanted to give him a younger brother.
Nevertheless, monitoring revealed that her body wasn’t prepared for another baby after weeks of shots and medication.
“I was told no, and that was painful and upsetting,” Maurer remarked. After things got better, she rescheduled her transfer for March 20. However, she then claimed to have learned about the court decision from watching FOX 40 News on television.
“I learned that Alabama recently passed legislation declaring embryos to be children. At first, I didn’t give it much thought, as why would I? My transfer date is already set in stone,” Maurer declared.
Maurer remembered, “My doctor from UAB called and said they’ve stopped all IVF treatments and they won’t be continuing.”
“Everything was just taken away from us when we had everything set up and ready to go,” Maurer claimed. Alabama clinics are stopping treatments because they could now be held accountable for any harm done to the embryos.
“The UAB division of reproductive endocrinology and infertility has paused IVF treatments as it evaluates the Alabama Supreme Court’s decision,” the UAB clinic that maintains the Maurer family’s frozen embryo told FOX40.com.Although we are sorry that this would affect our patients’ ability to conceive through IVF, we must consider the possibility that both our patients and our doctors could face criminal charges or punitive damages for adhering to the accepted standards of care for IVF procedures.
Following his hearing from the clinic, Maurer claimed, “I wept myself to sleep.”Our final embryo is this one. Our only opportunity is now.
Maurer promises to persevere in her battle to conceive her second child. If necessary, we will use legal action to remove our embryo from the state of Alabama, according to Maurer.
“We’ll take whatever necessary steps to grow our family. There isn’t anything else we can do,” she continued. Getting the embryo released from UAB and the state of Alabama is the current battleground.
To determine whether they will accept a transfer and complete the transfer here, Maurer is meeting with physicians at a Sacramento IVF clinic.
She claims that if necessary, she will submit a petition with the state of Alabama after learning from UAB’s clinic that no one is prepared to take the chance of transferring the embryo. Additionally, a GoFundMe was established to help the family.
It is unclear when the legislation intended to amend Alabama law will be brought up for committee consideration, so it may take some time before families and clinics can find out what happens to their embryos.
