LOUISVILLE, Ky. — In the wake of a ruling made by the Alabama Supreme Court, Gov. Andy Beshear shared he fully supports any action that protects in vitro fertilization (IVF) in Kentucky and called the ruling "horrendous" and "terrible."
"We have so many wonderful people in our world, children of God, because of those scientific advancements," Beshear said Thursday during his Team Kentucky update. "I would support anything we need to further protect that access in Kentucky."
Alabama lawmakers began scrambling for ways to protect the state’s IVF services after multiple providers paused treatment in the wake of a state Supreme Court ruling that frozen embryos could be considered children under a state law.
While their initial ruling did not make IVF illegal, it has made providers hesitant to provide the service.
"I'm of the generation where numerous of my friends have amazing children that have grown up with mine and that I know so well -- they wouldn't be here without IVF," Beshear said. "It's a gift from God that is helping people who want to be parents so badly and to welcome special children into this world. So anything that needs to be done to protect IVF or IVF access in Kentucky, I am 100% for."
He said this law, though, has brought out people's empathy.
"Whether you're pro this or pro that in a very different world that no longer exists, it brings out the empathy of saying, 'If these people really want to have a kid and science is going to help them do it, and they will be such great parents, why would we ever stand in the way of that?,'" Beshear said.
In an effort to protect the fertility service in Kentucky, Senator Cassie Chambers Armstrong introduced a bill that would safeguard IVF providers from criminal liability associated with providing fertility services.
“It basically says that if a doctor or healthcare provider is meeting the standard of care, they’re doing what they’re supposed to be – they’re following the professional norms for providing IVF services, nobody can charge them with a crime,” Chambers Armstrong said in an interview with WHAS11 News.
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The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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