Gov. Gavin Newsom Says Alabama's IVF Ruling Is A 'War On Women'

After the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos are children, Gov. Gavin Newsom called it a "war on women."

Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-Calif.) says that Alabama declaring frozen embryos are children is a “war on women.”

“This is a serious threat,” Newsom said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “Not just what’s happening in Alabama, regardless of what Trump tweets out, saying the legislature in Alabama should do something about this. What about the United States Supreme Court, that again set the tone and tenure for the debate we’re having today? And again, it’s not just a war on travel, it’s not just a war on reproductive health care. It’s also a war on women more broadly defined, including, as we know, contraceptives.”

Last week, the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos are children after three Alabama couples sued a fertility clinic for wrongful death when a patient accessed the freezer the embryos were in and dropped them. In the ruling, Section 36.06 of the Alabama Constitution was cited, which states that each person is made in God’s image.

“Section 36.06 recognizes that this is true of unborn human life no less than it is of all other human life ― that even before birth, all human beings bear the image of God, and their lives cannot be destroyed without effacing his glory,” the ruling said.

Since the ruling, at least three fertility clinics in Alabama have paused in vitro fertilization treatments. Meanwhile, Republicans are scrambling to figure out how to deal with the court decision, with the Senate GOP urging its 2024 candidates to support IVF in a memo that was sent out on Friday.