Gov. Abbott says he supports IVF, stops short of calling for law to protect access in Texas

By Chris Boyette and Lauren Mascarenhas, CNN

(CNN) — As Alabama grapples with the fallout of a state Supreme Court decision that has widely halted access to in vitro fertilization, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Sunday voiced support for IVF – though he stopped short of calling for a law to protect access in Texas.

The Alabama Supreme Court recently ruled that frozen embryos are considered human beings and people who discard of embryos can be held liable for wrongful death, prompting fertility clinics throughout the state to begin halting IVF services and forcing families to make difficult decisions about their fertility care.

Abbott said he wants to ensure some people will have access to IVF, invoking former President Donald Trump’s stance on the issue.

“(Former) President Trump put out a statement on this that I think a lot of people agree with, and that is a goal that we all kind of want to achieve. And that is we want to make it easier for people to be able to have babies, not … make it harder,” Abbott told CNN’s Dana Bash on “State of the Union” Sunday.

“And the IVF process is a way of giving life to even more babies. And so, what I think the goal is to make sure that we can find a pathway to ensure that parents who otherwise may not have the opportunity to have a child will be able to have access to the IVF process and become parents and give life to babies,” he said.

Trump has said he supports the availability of IVF and called on the Alabama legislature to “act quickly to find an immediate solution to preserve the availability of IVF in Alabama,” in a Truth Social post Friday.

The turmoil caused by the Alabama Supreme Court decision has extended beyond the state’s borders, with some families fleeing to other states, including Texas, where access to IVF services remains in place.

Though Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall has indicated his office does not intend to use the state court’s decision as a basis to prosecute families or IVF providers, at least one lawmaker has expressed concern that other law enforcement officials could.

Democratic Alabama House Minority Leader Anthony Daniels introduced a bill this week that would establish that fertilized human eggs stored outside a uterus are not considered human beings under state law. Republican state senators are expected to file similar legislation, a source told CNN, but the timing is not clear.

Bash asked Abbott if he planned to urge the Texas legislature to create laws to keep IVF legal.

Abbott said that he thought Texas would eventually address the issue, but that he wants to keep Texas a “pro-life state.”

“Texas is a pro-life state, and we want to do everything possible that we can to maintain Texas being a pro-life state. But at the very same time, I think Texans agree with what (former) President Trump said, and that is we, as a state, want to ensure that we promote life – we bring more life into the world – and we empower parents to be able to have more children,” the governor added.

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2024 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.

CNN’s Brian Rokus, Jason Hanna, Meg Tirrell and Dianne Gallagher contributed to this report.