How 'fetal personhood' in Alabama's IVF ruling evolved from fringe to mainstream

The Alabama Supreme Court's decision that frozen embryos have the same rights as children came as a surprise even to many who oppose abortion rights. But for researchers and activists who have long tracked narratives at the most extreme end of the anti-abortion movement, this legal determination was inevitable.

They say it shows how, even as the pro-abortion rights movement focuses on preserving legal access to abortion and contraception, other laws that codify the once-fringe notion of "legal personhood" may more immediately underpin decisions that could drastically curtail reproductive rights.

"The movement that's referred to as 'personhood,' to indicate that life begins at conception, was always going here," said Alex DiBranco, executive director and co-founder of the Institute for Research on Male Supremacism.

DiBranco said that while IVF may be popular among Americans on both sides of the political spectrum, hardline conservative organizations like the Heritage Foundation and Live Action have long villainized the IVF industry. Often referring to it as the "big fertility" industrial complex, they characterize the sector as predatory and profit-driven.

"They talk a lot about the idea that it's eugenics, that it's really more about designer babies than actually supporting women or other people who have fertility needs," DiBranco said.

At its most extreme, reproductive rights researchers and advocates warn that states where fetal personhood is established could even see courts citing those laws in criminal cases where pregnant people are concerned. They say the door to this application was opened decades ago when the American public succumbed to widespread hysteria over so-called "crack babies."

A moral panic