Alabama

Alabama Court Rules Frozen Embryos Made by IVF Are “Children”

Published

2 years ago

February 20, 2024

Alabama Court Rules Frozen Embryos Made by IVF Are “Children”

An embryologist prepares some eggs for thawing on Nov. 11, 2014, in Rockville, M.D.
The Washington Post via Getty Images

In a ruling that reads more like a theocrat’s sermon, the Alabama Supreme Court on Friday decided that frozen embryos — those created through in vitro fertilization — count as “children” under the state’s law.

The court’s decision specifically permits three couples whose frozen embryos were accidentally destroyed in a Mobile, Alabama, reproductive clinic to sue the facility for wrongful death. The potential consequences in the state and beyond are wide-reaching, confirming concerns of reproductive rights activists that, with Roe v. Wade dismantled, the far-right judiciary would strike blows against all aspects of reproductive health care.

“This Court has long held that unborn children are ‘children’ for purposes of Alabama’s Wrongful Death of a Minor Act,” wrote Alabama Supreme Court Justice Jay Mitchell in his opinion, concluding that “the Wrongful Death of a Minor Act applies to all unborn children, regardless of their location.”

The couples’ embryos were destroyed when another patient in the hospital tampered with an IVF freezer and dropped a number of trays. In a 7-2 decision, the court ruled that the couples can now sue the hospital for negligence under a wrongful death statute first passed in 1872, when “the wrongful death of a minor” had certainly not encompassed frozen, single-celled eggs. The ruling reverses an earlier judge’s decision to throw the case out.

The Alabama ruling threatens the entire IVF industry in the state. It works in one of numerous ways pernicious anti-abortion and anti-trans laws around the country do: taking aim at health care treatments by rendering hospitals’ and doctors’ liability insurance unaffordable. In this case, health care providers and clinics, fearing the legal risks of storing frozen embryos endowed with legal personhood, may well end such services or face prohibitive costs.

Assisted reproduction is already unaffordable for most, and rulings like Alabama’s only risk further entrenching disparities in reproductive care access.

Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, Alabama has been a total abortion ban state, with no exceptions for rape or incest. Alabama is one of four states to explicitly declare that their constitution does not secure or protect the right to abortion or allow use of public funds for abortion.

Other states show that it did not need to be this way. After the Dobbs decision, voters in six states — California, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Vermont, and Ohio — voted in favor of abortion protections in constitutional amendment ballot measures.

Now, Alabama’s darker path is playing the awkward role of using anti-abortion zealotry — the defense of the unborn — in a way that will likely serve as an obstacle for those who are ready and willing to become parents.

Chapter and Verse

In Friday’s ruling, Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Tom Parker invoked a 2018 “Sanctity of Life” amendment to the state’s constitution, ratified by voters, that requires courts to “recognize and support the sanctity of unborn life and the rights of unborn children, including the right to life.” Parker raised the amendment with religious fervor, citing biblical verse. “It is as if the People of Alabama took what was spoken of the prophet Jeremiah and applied it to every unborn person in this state: ‘Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, Before you were born I sanctified you.’ Jeremiah 1:5,” the judge wrote.

In one of numerous citations from the book of Genesis included in his opinion, Parker noted, “Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man.”

Fearing the court would rule against the clinic, Alabama’s medical establishment sought to avert the ruling. “The potential detrimental impact on IVF treatment in Alabama cannot be overstated,” the Medical Association of the State of Alabama wrote in a brief in support of the clinic. “The increased exposure to wrongful death liability as advocated by the Appellants would — at best — substantially increase the costs associated with IVF.”

“More ominously,” the association said, “the increased risk of legal exposure might result in Alabama’s fertility clinics shutting down and fertility specialists moving to other states to practice fertility medicine.”

Physicians and advocates have previously noted the irony in the fact so-called pro-life efforts to imbue frozen embryos with legal personhood could lead to less reproduction. Restrictive laws on assisted reproduction passed two decades ago in Italy, for example, led to a decrease in success rates in IVF clinics and an increase in high-risk pregnancies.

There’s no real irony, however, in Christo-nationalist policies that lead to a reduction in health care options, even for people who want to parent. Pro-natalist agendas have always relied on limiting reproductive justice, in terms of the choice to end a pregnancy, and the choice to parent with safety and support. Italy’s current far-right government, for example, has combined restrictions on assisted reproduction with laws against same-sex parenting. A ruling like Alabama’s is just the latest to bring together extremist Christianity and neoliberal scarcity in privatized health care. As ever, the least resourced will suffer the most, whatever their reproductive desires.

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Alabama

Alabama Shakes Set Spring 2026 Tour Dates

Published

2 hours ago

December 12, 2025

Press Room

Alabama Shakes Set Spring 2026 Tour Dates

Alabama Shakes have lined up a string of North American tour dates for 2026. Brittany Howard and the band’s spring run includes multiple stops in Florida and a concluding two-night stint at Red Rocks Amphitheater in Denver, Colorado. Check out the new dates, plus their previously announced festival shows, European itinerary, and Zach Bryan support dates, below.

Support for the headline shows comes from Joy Oladokun, Mon Rovîa, Lamont Landers, and JJ Grey & Mofro. For every ticket sold, $1 will go towards nonprofits around the United States via the Alabama Shakes Fund, a press release notes. There is, as yet, no word on a follow-up to the band’s 2015 album, Sound & Color, but they did sign to Island this year and release their first single since that record.

Alabama Shakes:

04-16 Richmond, VA – Allianz Amphitheater at Riverfront ~
04-17 Asheville, NC – ExploreAsheville.com Arena ~
04-18 Charleston, SC – High Water Fest
04-22 Memphis, TN – Grind City Amphitheater +
04-24 Atlanta, GA – Synovus Bank Amphitheater at Chastain Park +
04-25 Raleigh, NC – Red Hat Amphitheater +
04-26 St. Augustine, FL – St. Augustine Amphitheatre %
04-28 Tallahassee, FL – Adderley Amphitheater %
04-29 Boca Raton, FL – Sunset Cove Amphitheater %
04-30 Clearwater, FL – The BayCare Sound %
05-02 New Orleans, LA – New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival
05-24 Morrison, CO – Red Rocks Amphitheatre #
05-25 Morrison, CO – Red Rocks Amphitheatre #
06-13 Manchester, Tennessee – Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival
07-01 Leeds, England – Millennium Square
07-02 Wasing, England – On the Mount at Wasing
07-03 London, England – Alexandra Palace *
07-05 Ghent, Belgium – Gent Jazz Festival
07-07 Lucca, Italy – Summer Festival
07-09 Lisbon, Portugal – NOS Alive Festival
07-10 Bilbao, Spain – BBK Live
07-11 Madrid, Spain – Noches del Botanico
07-25 Eugene, OR – Autzen Stadium ^
09-19 Dover, DE – The Woodlands ^

~ with Joy Oladokun
+ with Mon Rovîa
% with Lamont Landers
# with JJ Grey & Mofro
* with Tyler Ballgame
^ supporting Zach Bryan

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Alabama

Jacob Crews scores 20 for Missouri in 85-77 win over Alabama State

Published

14 hours ago

December 12, 2025

Press Room

Jacob Crews scores 20 for Missouri in 85-77 win over Alabama State

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — Jacob Crews scored 20, and Anthony Robinson II added 19 in Missouri’s 85-77 win over Alabama State on Thursday night.

Crews shot 7 of 9 from the field, including 6 of 8 from the 3-point arc. Mark Mitchell added 15 points for Missouri (9-2), and Sebastian Mack added 10.

The Tigers had a 15-0 run in the first half, heading into the locker room up 52-39. Alabama State was held scoreless over a 4:19 drought in the middle of the second half to open a 9-0 run for the Tigers. The Hornets (3-8) responded with their own 10-0 run to bring the game within eight, 74-62. The Tigers regained control, though, to keep their eight-point lead the rest of the game, handing Alabama State their fourth loss in a row.

The Tigers shot 65% (33 of 51). Both teams shot 50% from the free-throw line.

Alabama State outscored Missouri in the final period, 38-33. Asjon Anderscon scored 23 for the Hornets, leading all players in scoring.

Up next

Missouri hosts Bethune-Cookman on Dec. 14.

Alabama State travels to Cincinnati to face the Bearcats on Dec. 17.

___ Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here and here (AP News mobile app). AP college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-basketball-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-basketball

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Alabama

Katie Windham Highlights Alabama Areas of Improvement on The Joe Gaither Show

Published

1 day ago

December 11, 2025

Press Room

Katie Windham Highlights Alabama Areas of Improvement on The Joe Gaither Show

Let’s crank up a Thursday edition of “The Joe Gaither Show on BamaCentral” with Mason Woods and Katie Windham as we start getting ready for next week’s College Football Playoff game between Alabama and Oklahoma. Windham detailed how the Crimson Tide can improve over the next few weeks, we discuss the team’s health and look back at our last road trip to Norman. The show then discusses the Heisman Trophy finalists before addressing a Kalen DeBoer coaching rumor.

The program opens by power ranking the holidays before discussing Windham’s three areas the Crimson Tide can improve over the next week. Our trio picks the easiest area the team can improve and how Alabama must perform in Norman. Windham details our last trip to Oklahoma as we go down memory lane to the Sooners’ 24-3 victory last season.

The show continues on by getting Windham’s thoughts on Alabama’a College Football Playoff selection and if the Crimson Tide actually deserved its place in the field. She brings up a unique aspect of Alabama’s blowout loss in the SEC Championship and how it played into the program’s inclusion in the College Football Playoffs.

We move from next week’s game into a small discussion on Notre Dame’s reaction of being left out of the field and how it relates to Alabama’s future home-and-home dates with the Fighting Irish. Will the two esteemed programs still face off in a few years?

The show heads into the only college football action of the weekend by highlighting the strong Heisman Trophy finalist field. Who brings home the bronze statue?

Lastly, we spend the final bit of the show talking about Michigan firing Sherrone Moore and the reports of the Wolverines considering persuing Kalen DeBeor for their next head coach. Will DeBoer leave Tuscaloosa for Ann Arbor?

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