Missouri Republicans send mixed messages on IVF protections

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KY3) – While some Missouri lawmakers contend that no interpretation of current state law would impact in vitro fertilization procedures, others say it’s a more complicated issue that still needs clarification and protection.

It follows a ruling by the Alabama Supreme Court that an embryo, a fertilized egg, is recognized by the state to have the same legal protections as a child.

Because a standard method of IVF involves fertilizing a harvested egg in a lab setting, freezing it, and then implanting it in a uterus at a later time, the Alabama Supreme Court ruling thrust providers into a perilous legal problem, unable to dispose of unused embryos for fear of criminal charges.

It led many providers to stop offering IVF procedures and left lawmakers scrambling to enact legal protections for them.

In Missouri, state Sen. Mary Elizabeth Coleman, a Republican from Arnold running for a Congressional seat, told the bureau Wednesday that IVF is protected in the Show Me State.

“In Missouri, we have broad legality for both IVF treatments as well as surrogacy laws, some of the broadest in the country,” Coleman said. “I don’t believe there’s any need for further laws to be written.”

Coleman said Wednesday that no Missouri providers have stopped offering IVF treatments out of concern about the Alabama decision.

U.S. Senator Josh Hawley, who previously served as the state’s attorney general, also argued that Missouri law does not threaten IVF.

“I’m pro IVF, and it’s protected in law Missouri in my state, and I think should be everywhere,” Senator Hawley said.

On Wednesday, however, State Rep. Bill Allen, a Republican from Kansas City, filed a bill that would specifically clarify that IVF treatments are completely legal under all state laws.

Since the 1980s, Missouri law has considered a life to begin at conception. This stage occurs before fertilization, and it doesn’t clearly distinguish between fertilization within a human reproductive system and in a lab setting.

“When an egg is fertilized, it’s a live person according to Missouri law,” said State Sen. Mike Moon, a Republican from Ash Grove. “When you get into frozen embryos, we’re essentially playing God in those cases. Those are questions that we haven’t answered, and I’m not sure if we’ll have that discussion anytime soon.”

A 2016 ruling by Missouri’s Eastern District Court of Appeals determined that embryos amount to “property,” as the court was deciding what to do with a divorced couple’s frozen embryos that had been preserved when they were still married.

State Rep. Betsy Fogle, a Democrat from Springfield, filed a bill for the last two years seeking to require insurance companies to cover IVF.

“One of the most intimate choices a family can make is whether or not they want to grow,” Fogle said. “If you have a family whose heart and time and money and effort has been spent on growing their family, and then that choice is taken away, taken away by their government. That’s a really scary precedent.”

Fogle’s bill has not yet been assigned to a committee or received a hearing.

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