Letter to the Editor: Frozen embryos

The Alabama Supreme Court, citing Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, has ruled that the frozen embryos used in IVF (in vitro fertilization) are children and entitled to all the protections we expect for children. This, of course, has thrown a monkey wrench into the IVF process and made it far more difficult for couples to have an actual child – at least in Alabama, where healthcare agencies that supported IVF are abandoning the procedure in fear of prosecution - since culling the multiple embryos is a necessary part of the process. It's estimated that 2% of births are from IVF.

The Republican Party introduced a “Life At Conception Act" when they won the House in January 2023. This bill, which gives full rights of personhood to unborn – now indeed, laboratory-created – embryos, has 166 co-sponsors, including my Congressman, Andy Harris, who was a founding co-sponsor.

I'd appreciate Mr. Harris telling us, his constituents, why he co-sponsored a bill on the national level that would further frustrate couples already wrestling with major difficulties trying to make a family. Does Mr. Harris believe Maryland and Marylanders would be better off emulating the know-nothing evangelicals of Alabama?

Richard Bearman

Cambridge