Since the Alabama Supreme Court ruled on February 16 that frozen embryos should be recognized and protected as unborn children, Democrats have wrongfully alleged that Republicans want to “ban” in vitro fertilization (IVF).
Even President Biden made this accusation during the State of the Union address last Thursday. However, this is not true. Republicans are not wanting to ban IVF.
Yet the Alabama Supreme Court ruling has brought to light a problem with the IVF system: there are thousands (perhaps millions) of frozen embryos (unborn children) created during IVF that have either been aborted or are being stored in IVF clinics. (While many countries have laws that limit the number of embryos created during IVF, the United States has no such regulations or laws.)
For those couples who are finished with the IVF process but have “leftover” embryos in the clinic, there is a pro-life option: embryo adoption.
Embryo adoption enables couples to adopt a baby from the earliest stage of life and gives the adoptive mother the ability to give birth to the embryo. There are many stories about such adoptions, including that of Hannah, the first child born from an adopted frozen embryo through an open adoption.
As the Embryo Adoption Awareness Center explains,
“She’s now a happy, healthy 15-year-old girl who speaks very intelligently about her adoption as an embryo, and she and her parents are advocates for helping more people learn about the embryo adoption option for growing their family.”
You can watch a video of her and her adoptive parents (when Hannah was 12) on the center’s website.
There are also stories from couples who donated their embryos, allowing other couples the opportunity to give birth and adopt. For example, one woman was able to give birth to her and her husband’s biological twin boys as a result of IVF. But then she was diagnosed with placenta accreta and had to have an emergency hysterectomy.
They still had frozen embryos remaining in the clinic. That’s when they decided to donate their embryos. The biological mother writes,
Our first match was the perfect match. The connection with them was instantaneous! We knew right away they were the family God choose for our embryos. They were going to be wonderful parents. This couple have hearts for God, and an incredible amount of faith.
We stay in contact with our adoptive family, share memories, and pray for each other. This sweet family is now pregnant with their first baby and we could not be more excited for them! We are forever grateful to Nightlight for helping us throughout this journey, and for connecting us with our beautiful adoptive family.
While the issue of IVF is likely to continue to be a hotly-debated topic this election season, sharing these life-affirming stories about embryo adoption can help spread the truth about IVF and the sanctity of every single human life from the moment of conception until natural death.
