The day before the Dobbs decision was issued in June 2022, Reed Smith published a thought piece predicting the possible fallout of Dobbs with respect to fertility and reproductive medicine. Less than two years later, we have seen the first major decision to test these theories.
On Feb. 16, the Alabama Supreme Court issued a bombshell ruling, holding that a frozen embryo in storage is the legal equivalent of a child under the law. See LePage v. Center for Reproductive Medicine, Nos. SC-2022-0515, SC-2022-0579, 2024 Ala. LEXIS 62 (Feb. 16, 2024). The case arose in the context of several couples who had undergone treatment through in vitro fertilization (IVF), which involves the fertilization of an egg outside the uterus. Several embryos created during this process were frozen and stored in the fertility clinic’s laboratory located inside a hospital, which the majority opinion refers to as a “cryogenic nursery.”
