US President Joe Biden said on Thursday that it was “scandalous” that the Supreme Court of the conservative state of Alabama equated frozen embryos with children, reports AFP.

“An Alabama court has put at risk access to certain fertility treatments,” the Democratic leader said in a statement.

“The refusal to recognize women’s ability to make these decisions for themselves and their families is outrageous and unacceptable,” he condemned.

In a decision handed down on Friday, the highest court of the southern US state recognized embryos preserved by freezing as “children”.

As a direct consequence of this decision, several clinics specializing in assisted reproduction have announced the cessation of in vitro fertilization (IVF) activities.

The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) said in a statement that it was “disappointed” by the impact of the suspension on patients at its facilities.

“But we have to weigh the possibility that our patients and doctors could be prosecuted or fined for following IVF treatment standards,” she said.

“A recent decision by the Alabama Supreme Court leaves us with no choice but to suspend our business,” Mark Nix, the head of another fertility clinic, announced Thursday.

Resolve, America’s main infertility association, had already warned on Tuesday that the reasoning could have “devastating consequences” for IVF procedures.

Act of 1872

“Make no mistake,” Joe Biden said Thursday, “this decision “is a direct result of overturning Roe v. Wade,” the abortion-rights decision that the U.S. Supreme Court overturned nearly two years ago.

The decision in Alabama reflects “exactly the chaos we expected when the Supreme Court overturned” the decision, as White House spokeswoman Karin Jean-Pierre has already condemned.

In June 2022, the US Supreme Court struck down the constitutional guarantee of abortion rights, prompting numerous states, including Alabama, to restrict or ban abortions.

Since then, protecting abortion rights has become a key issue for Democrats ahead of November’s presidential election.

Friday’s decision was prompted by a complaint filed by three couples against the IVF clinic.

Citing an 1872 law dealing with the wrongful death of minors, they filed suit after another patient accidentally destroyed her embryos by entering the vault.

The court initially dismissed the case, ruling that embryos could not be characterized as “people” or “children.”

But on Friday, by a majority of 7 to 2 justices, all Republicans, the Alabama Supreme Court ruled instead that the infant death statute “applies without limit to all unborn children.”

“This applies to all children, born and unborn,” Judge Jay Mitchell wrote in the text of the decision, peppered with biblical references.