Mother’s IVF Journey Halted Due to Alabama Ruling: 'Our Sadness Turned to Complete Anger' (Exclusive)

• Latory Beasley’s IVF clinic closed due to Alabama Supreme Court ruling that frozen embryos are now legally considered children
• The 38-year-old was days away from undergoing an embryo transfer before the decision halted her family’s plans
• She is now sharing her IVF story and encouraging people to vote to protect women’s reproductive rights

A mother’s hopes of expanding her family have been put on hold after the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos are now legally considered children in the state.

After struggling with infertility, Latorya Beasley — a social worker from Birmingham, Alabama — and her husband Lamar decided in 2020 that IVF was the best option for starting a family.

IVF, or in vitro fertilization, is a medical procedure in which “mature eggs are collected from the ovaries and fertilized with sperm in the laboratory,” the Mayo Clinic explains. “The procedure is then carried out to place one or more fertilized eggs, called embryos, into the uterus, where the babies develop. One full cycle of IVF takes about 2 to 3 weeks.”

Despite delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Beasley began her first round of IVF in late 2021 and had a successful transfer in April 2022, leading to the birth of her daughter Lyric in 2023.

At 38, Beasley says she and her husband knew they wanted children around the same age, so she made a doctor’s appointment in October 2023 to discuss preparations for another round of IVF.

“When we first started, everything went pretty smoothly,” she tells PEOPLE. “But we started hearing some of the chatter that was happening in February 2024.”

Florida mom’s IVF trip cut short by Alabama ruling: ‘I fell to the floor and started crying’ (Exclusive)

Latorya Beasley and her husband Lamar and daughter Lyric.

Lamar Beasley

That chatter included a possible Supreme Court ruling on IVF – but she didn’t expect it to change her family’s life.

“I was starting to get a little worried, but of course, I’m a pretty typical American that we think things don’t affect us,” Beasley admits. “The week we started preparing for the transfer, my husband even said, ‘Well, we’re on medication now, it’s definitely not going to affect us.’ We never thought it would really affect us, but it did.”

On February 16, the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos are legally considered children. The decision comes as a result of a wrongful-death lawsuit brought by couples whose frozen embryos were destroyed at a fertility clinic in December 2020 when a patient entered the nursery’s cryogenic storage unit and removed several embryos.

Because of this decision, “no health care provider will be willing to provide treatments where those treatments may lead to civil or criminal charges,” the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) said in a statement condemning the ruling.

“The day the first clinic, which was UAB, closed [University of Alabama at Birmingham], I was in the doctor’s office and the first sign that something was wrong was that everyone looked panicked,” Beasley recalls. “The patients seemed a little panicked and just a mess.”

She continues, “I walk in and my doctor just didn’t look good. And she said, ‘Yeah, maybe you should call Lamar.’ She says, ‘We’re making progress as of now, but this court ruling could affect your transfer.'”

The doctor prepares plates for growing embryos.

Getty

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Shortly after that conversation, Beasley’s clinic was finally closed, and her planned transfer, which had been scheduled for March 4, was canceled.

“We were right there,” she says. “I was literally just a few days out of the transfer.”

“In the beginning it was just sadness,” she adds. “I think that’s how infertility goes. You simply deal with this range of emotions all the time. One day you’re high because you have high hopes, and then the next day you can be down because you get some kind of news. We were very sad, but in the end our sadness turned into complete anger.”

Beasley says she’s always paid attention to politics. So when Roe v. Wade which the US Supreme Court overturned in June 2022 after nearly 50 years, effectively eliminating a pregnant woman’s constitutional right to an abortion in every state, she “knew what was at stake.”

“But then again, you don’t think it’s going to happen to you,” Beasley says, noting that she realized how much the ruling has had on women’s reproductive rights, beyond abortion itself.

“You start to wonder, well, what could be next? I think that’s what caused the outrage, like how did we get here? How can we let this happen?”

Latorya Beasley and her husband Lamar and daughter Lyric.

Lamar Beasley

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Since her transfer was canceled, Beasley admits she’s “went into mama bear mode” and is willing to do whatever it takes to make the change happen.

“I will advocate. I will tell my story, as embarrassing as it may be. I’ll tell you that a thousand times if I have to,” she says.

Beasley recently attended the State of the Union as a guest of First Lady Dr. Jill Biden. She shared her story with state and federal lawmakers, including a roundtable convened by US Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra.

“I just hope they hear my story and pay attention. I hope they will come out and exercise their right to vote, because you have to protect only basic women’s rights,” she emphasizes.

In the meantime, Beasley is crossing her fingers in hopes of expanding her family with IVF soon.

“We still haven’t crossed over today,” she tells PEOPLE. “When things stalled in Alabama, we stayed on medical for a little while longer with the hope that I would be able to transition once everything opened up. But, unfortunately, we don’t know 100%.”

Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education