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Alabama patient says embryo ruling has “derailed a lot of hope” as hospital halts IVF treatments
Alabama’s largest hospital is pausing all IVF treatments after the state’s supreme court ruled last week that frozen embryos created through in vitro fertilization, or IVF, are considered children under state law — leaving patients struggling to have a child in limbo.
Jasmine York, 34, turned to IVF to get pregnant, but now her dream of having another child has come to a sudden halt after the hospital called to inform her the treatments are being put on hold.
“I’m angry, I’m sad, I’m a whole slew of things,” she told CBS News. “It’s completely just derailed a lot of hope.”
After multiple ectopic pregnancies that left her with no fallopian tubes, York says IVF is her last hope to have another baby.
“There is no other way,” she says. “We want to grow our family. It would mean the world to everyone around me.”
The University of Alabama at Birmingham’s Division of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility says it is halting IVF treatments while it assesses the impact of the court’s ruling.
“We are saddened that this will impact our patients’ attempt to have a baby through IVF, but we must evaluate the potential that our patients and our physicians could be prosecuted criminally or face punitive damages for following the standard of care for IVF treatments,” Savannah Koplon, a spokesperson for the university, said in an email Wednesday.
On Thursday, a second clinic, Alabama Fertility Specialists, also curtailed IVF treatments.
“We have made the impossibly difficult decision to hold new IVF treatments due to the legal risk to our clinic and our embryologists,” the practice wrote. “We are contacting patients that will be affected today to find solutions for them and we are working as hard as we can to alert our legislators as to the far reaching negative impact of this ruling on the women of Alabama.”
Dr. Mamie McLean, a doctor at Alabama Fertility, says she’s been telling patients there remains a lot of uncertainty.
“We’re not certain what is safe and legal for us to do with regards to IVF,” she said. “We’re taking this day by day. Ultimately, we’re worried there are going to be fewer babies born in Alabama because of this ruling.”
The ruling by the Alabama Supreme Court allowed families to sue a fertility clinic for wrongful death after several embryos were accidentally destroyed. “The Wrongful Death of a Minor Act applies to all unborn children, regardless of their location,” including “unborn children who are located outside of a biological uterus at the time they are killed,” the ruling said.
In a dissenting opinion, Justice Greg Cook wrote, “No court — anywhere in the country — has reached the conclusion the main opinion reaches,” adding that it “almost certainly ends the creation of frozen embryos through in vitro fertilization (IVF) in Alabama.”
Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley said in an interview with Gayle King on CNN’s “King Charles” that she agrees “an embryo is considered an unborn baby.”
But York sees it differently.
“These are not living children. If they were, things would be a lot different in my world and all of these other women’s worlds,” she says. “We want living children. That’s our goal.”
Floodwaters pushed by the remnants of Hurricane Helene left North Carolina’s largest mountain city largely cut off Saturday by damaged roads and a lack of power and cellphone service, part of a swath of destruction across southern Appalachia that left an unknown number dead and countless worried relatives unable to reach loved ones.
In North Carolina alone, more than 400 roads remained closed on Saturday as floodwaters began to recede and reveal the extent of damage. North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper said that supplies were being airlifted to that part of the state. Cooper said two people died in his state, Helene killed at least 52 people across multiple states.
Among those rescued from rising waters was nurse Janetta Barfield, whose car was swamped on Friday morning as she left an overnight shift at Asheville’s Mission Hospital. She said she watched a car in front of her drive through standing water and thought it was safe to proceed. But her car stalled, and within minutes water had filled her front seat up to her chest. A nearby police officer who saw her car stall helped her to safety.
“It was unbelievable how fast that creek got just in like five minutes,” Barfield said.
Erik Verduzco / AP
Early on Saturday morning, many gas stations were closed because they didn’t have electricity, and the few that were open had hourlong lines wrapped around the block. The hub of tourism and arts, home to about 94,000 people, was unusually still after floodwaters swamped neighborhoods known for drawing visitors including Biltmore Village and the River Arts District, which is home to numerous galleries, shops and breweries.
More than 700,000 power customers were without power across North Carolina, including 160,000 in Buncombe County. Interstate 40 and I-26 were impassible in multiple locations, and a state transportation department map showed that most routes into Asheville and across much of the mountains were snarled. North Carolina’s Department of Transportation posted on social media on Saturday afternoon that “all roads in Western North Carolina should be considered closed.”
In Asheville, there was no cellular service and no timeline for when it would be restored.
“We have had some loss of life,” County Emergency Services Director Van Taylor Jones told reporters. However, he said they were not ready to report any specifics. Officials have been hindered in contacting next of kin by the communications outages. Asheville police instituted a curfew from 7:30 p.m. Friday to 7:30 a.m. Saturday.
“The curfew is to ensure the public’s safety and will be in effect until further notice,” police said.
Asheville transit services were also suspended, police said. The city advised residents to boil “all water used for human consumption,” as there was at least one significant water line break during the storm. Many residents might not be getting water or reduced or no pressure water.
Jones said the area experienced a cascade of emergencies that included heavy rain, high winds and mudslides. Officials said they tried to prepare for the storm but its magnitude was beyond what they could have imagined.
“It’s not that we (were) not prepared, but this is going to another level,” Sheriff Quentin Miller said. “To say this caught us off-guard would be an understatement.”
Erik Verduzco / AP
Atlanta resident Francine Cavanaugh said she has been unable to reach her sister, son, or friends in the Asheville area.
“My sister checked in with me yesterday morning to find out how I was in Atlanta,” she said on Saturday. “The storm was just hitting her in Asheville, and she said it sounded really scary outside.”
Cavanaugh said her sister had no idea how bad the storm would be there. She told Cavanaugh she was going to head out to check on guests at a vacation cabin “and that’s the last I heard of her. I’ve been texting everyone that I know with no response. All phone calls go directly to voicemail.”
The CEO of a hospital operator that filed for bankruptcy protection in May will step down after failing to testify before a U.S. Senate panel.
Steward Health Care CEO Ralph de la Torre has overseen a network of some 30 hospitals around the country. The Texas-based company’s troubled recent history has drawn scrutiny from elected officials in New England, where some of its hospitals are located.
A spokesperson for de la Torre told the Associated Press Saturday that he “has amicably separated from Steward on mutually agreeable terms” and “will continue to be a tireless advocate for the improvement of reimbursement rates for the underprivileged patient population.”
A CBS News investigation that spanned nearly two years documented how private equity investors and de la Torre extracted hundreds of millions of dollars while healthcare workers and patients struggled to get the life-saving supplies they needed.
In August, the company closed two Massachusetts hospitals, leaving about 1,200 workers jobless, according to the state.
Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who chairs the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, said earlier this month that Congress “will hold Dr. de la Torre accountable for his greed and for the damage he has caused to hospitals and patients throughout America.”
De la Torre’s resignation is effective Oct. 1. The Senate approved a resolution on Wednesday that was intended to hold him in criminal contempt for failing to testify before a committee.
The Senate panel has been looking into Steward’s bankruptcy. De la Torre did not appear before it despite being issued a subpoena. The resolution refers the matter to a federal prosecutor.
Kayla Bartkowski/The Boston Globe via Getty Images
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