Alabama ruling enshrines fetal personhood

The Freedom From Religion Foundation condemns the recent outrageous theocratic 7–2 ruling by the Alabama Supreme Court.

It describes frozen embryos as “children,” contains a bible-laden concurrence and endangers in-vitro fertilization in the state. The ruling clearly shows the religion-based mentality that drives anti-abortion legislation and court judgments.

The case involves an IVF patient who accidentally dropped and destroyed frozen embryos belonging to other couples, and whether that patient could be held liable in a wrongful death lawsuit. Alabama’s high court descended to a new low when it held that “unborn children are ‘children’” and encompassed frozen embryos under the state’s Wrongful Death of a Minor Act.

Alabama voters in 2018, before Roe v. Wade was overturned, passed a ballot measure granting fetuses full personhood rights, but the language did not mention frozen embryos. After Roe was repealed, Alabama adopted a draconian abortion ban.

It is hard to think of a more un-American ruling than the concurrence by Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Tom Parker. In his theology-drenched concurring opinion, Parker openly cites religion and the bible: “The theologically based view of the sanctity of life adopted by the people of Alabama encompasses the following: God made every person in His image; each person therefore has a value that far exceeds the ability of human beings to calculate; and human life cannot be wrongfully destroyed without incurring the wrath of a holy God, who views the destruction of His image as an affront to Himself.” Parker added that “even before birth, all human beings bear the image of God, and their lives cannot be destroyed without effacing His glory.”

Parker’s concurrence references the Theology Today journal, a book by now-Supreme Court Justice Neil M. Gorsuch against medical aid in dying, the “Manhattan Declaration: The Call to Christian Conscience” theological screed, Thomas Aquinas, John Calvin, 18th-century English jurist William Blackstone — and the bible. Parker cites the sixth commandment along with Genesis 1:27, which he says speaks of the “creation of man” as being “in the image of God.”

Parker argues, “We believe that each human being, from the moment of conception, is made in the image of God, created by Him to reflect His likeness. It is as if the People of Alabama took what was spoken of the prophet Jeremiah and applied it to every unborn person in this state: ‘Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, Before you were born I sanctified you.’ Jeremiah 1:5 (NKJV 1982).” Parker can’t cite any actual bible verse against abortion, of course, because none exists.

Parker concludes, “All three branches of government are subject to a constitutional mandate to treat each unborn human life with reverence. Carving out an exception for the people in this case, small as they were, would be unacceptable to the People of this State, who have required us to treat every human being in accordance with the fear of a holy God who made them in His image.” (“Small” doesn’t quite say it. At 3-5 days old, the zygote is measured by its number of cells (70-100) and is about the size of the head of a pin.)

Justice Greg Cook wrote a dissent expressing shock: “No court — anywhere in the country — has reached the conclusion the main opinion reaches. And, the main opinion’s holding almost certainly ends the creation of frozen embryos through in vitro fertilization (‘IVF’) in Alabama.”

Don’t anti-abortionists, not to mention the pope who just slammed surrogacy with no sense of irony, ever wonder how it is “pro-life” to ban IVF, the only means by which many couples can conceive and give birth? More than 40 percent of U.S. adults say that they or someone they know has used fertility treatments, making the opinion, which likely will deny parenthood to many Alabamans, callous in the extreme. “Pro-lifers” ought to be making IVF a sacrament!

Does all this portend Christian theocracy?

“Not on FFRF’s watch,” says FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. “The solution is to vote out the theocrats and vote in executives, judges and legislators who understand that religious dogma has no place in our laws and social policy.”