President Biden on Thursday drew a straight line between the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the broad right to abortion and a ruling in Alabama that said frozen embryos from in-vitro fertilization treatments are considered children and could be subject to wrongful death suits if destroyed.
Mr. Biden, in a formal statement, condemned the Alabama Supreme Court’s ruling on IVF, saying it will scare facilities away from offering the family-building tool. One facility in Birmingham paused the treatments.
“Today, in 2024 in America, women are being turned away from emergency rooms and forced to travel hundreds of miles for health care, while doctors fear prosecution for providing an abortion,” Mr. Biden said. “And now a court in Alabama put access to some fertility treatments at risk for families who are desperately trying to get pregnant. The disregard for women’s ability to make these decisions for themselves and their families is outrageous and unacceptable.”
Mr. Biden’s statement was a thinly veiled swipe at Republican foes this election year.
Earlier Thursday, the Biden campaign blamed former President Donald Trump and the trio of Supreme Court justices he appointed for ushering in limits on abortion, saying the push spilled into popular IVF treatments.
Mr. Biden has made abortion rights a central plank of his reelection campaign, saying he will restore protections that existed before the justices overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision.
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“I know that folks are worried about what they’re seeing happening to women all across America. I am too. I hear about it everywhere I go. My message is: The vice president and I are fighting for your rights. We’re fighting for the freedom of women, for families and for doctors who care for these women,” he said.
Republicans say Democrats are the ones who should explain whether they support any limits on abortion, saying Americans want to see reasonable restrictions.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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