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University of Alabama at Birmingham says state’s supreme court ruling could expose doctors and patients to criminal charges

A medical school in Alabama has paused in vitro fertilization procedures in the wake of the first-of-its-kind decision made by the state’s supreme court on Friday, which ruled that frozen embryos are “children”.

The decision has been widely seen as one that would have serious implications for people seeking in vitro fertilization (IVF) or other assisted reproductive technology treatments.

On Wednesday, spokesperson Savannah Koplon said on behalf of the University of Alabama at Birmingham, a research university and academic medical center that is also the largest healthcare provider in the state, that the institution was “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”.