IVF Is Back in the Legal Spotlight

May 14, 2024

This time in Texas ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

May 14, 2024

Greetings, Meteor readers,

I never say this on a Tuesday, but we’ve made it to the best day of the week: Tonight marks the start of the WNBA regular season, and I am thrilled. Tonight’s schedule is jam-packed with games, including the New York Liberty vs. the Washington Mystics and the much-anticipated Indiana Fever vs. Connecticut Sun. Make this the year you get super into women’s basketball, friends.

In today’s newsletter, we look at a confounding IVF case in Texas and ponder Katie Britt’s definition of success.

And 1,

Shannon Melero

WHAT’S GOING ON

IVF back in court? Potentially!: You may recall that back in February, the Alabama high court ruled that embryos produced during IVF were “extrauterine children.” The implication that those embryos had the same rights as actual children briefly shut down the state’s fertility clinics till the legislature (seeing the wild unpopularity of this bonkers situation) intervened to allow IVF to resume. Settled? Not quite. While IVF clinics and doctors are safe from criminal prosecution in Alabama, the fetal personhood court ruling still stands, leaving patients uncertain about what they are liable for if anything happens to their embryos.

And now, thanks to a messy divorce, IVF is back in the legal spotlight in another state: Texas.

Briefly: A couple in Denton, Texas, Gaby and Caroline Antoun, underwent IVF treatment and signed a contract agreeing that in the case of divorce, Gaby (the husband) would keep any leftover frozen embryos. In 2022, they did get divorced, and the court awarded Gaby the embryos because they were considered property and thus subject to basic contract law. But then Roe was overturned and everything changed.

Caroline and her lawyers appealed the original decision, arguing that Texas abortion law now suggests that embryos should be treated as children—making the contract she signed null and void, and meaning that the only way to settle the question is to go to trial for custody.

The jokes for this situation write themselves: Who gets the embryos on Saturday? Where will they go for Christmas? But the consequences are real and decidedly unfunny: Caroline wants to take this to the Texas Supreme Court, which is allowing both sides to brief them on the case before deciding whether or not to take on the issue.

In an amicus brief presented to the court, the American Society for Reproductive Medicine wrote, “Recognizing ‘personhood’ status for a frozen embryo…would upend IVF in Texas…[and] inject untenable uncertainty into whether and on what terms IVF clinics can continue to operate in Texas.”

AND:

Over the weekend, Alabama Senator Katie Britt (‘memba her?) and 12 other Republicans—the majority of whom are men— introduced the More Opportunities for Moms to Succeed Act, which, if you didn’t read past the headlines, sounds great! However, the MOMS Act would “help” America’s mothers by tracking and tricking them: It would create a federal database of pregnant people, whom it would then provide with resources like the location of the nearest pregnancy crisis center and advice on adoption. The Act also carves out money to provide grants to anti-abortion organizations. Some Democratic senators have already issued a denouncement. Next!

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