SHREVEPORT, La. (KTAL/KMSS) – The recent ruling by the Alabama Supreme Court declaring that frozen embryos used in fertility treatments are children has ripple effects on Louisiana families.

Bobby Slaton shares the joy he and his wife Sara experience as parents of a two-year-old daughter, Hope. Sara is a nurse practitioner at Positive Steps Fertility in Shreveport. She and her husband also created their family through In Vitro Fertilization at the clinic. They say the journey through the IVF process was a struggle.

"You create embryos, never knowing how many you're going to need. And you know, it took us two embryos to even get to hope, and I miscarried the first one." Sara Slaton said.

Sara says the Alabama Supreme Court's ruling that embryos created through IVF are children poses serious concerns.

"So for them to say every embryo is gonna result in a pregnancy, they're all human," she said. "If you're doing or you're destroying embryos, you're destroying a child, a potential child. That's very inaccurate information."

"This changes 15,000-plus laws for the definitions," said the medical director at Positive Steps Fertility, Dr. John Preston Parry.

Parry educates the public about IVF through his YouTube channel. He says the Alabama ruling has created a ripple effect negatively impacting people who are trying to create a family through IVF.

"Well, right now, three-quarters of the clinics have shut down," he said. "They refuse to provide any in vitro-related care because of the nature of the law. The reason is if an embryologist dropped a dish, she goes to jail under the law and again, the attorney general says they won't do that. You can't prove it with their definitions, and it would just take one overzealous person to sue them."

Parry says IVF is an effective and sought-after procedure, with 15 to 20 patients visiting his clinic each day. He worries the Alabama ruling could impact them.

"Alabama shipping companies have refused to ship embryos from Alabama because you might be arguably transporting minors across state lines under Alabama law," Parry said.

He says medical groups are asking the Alabama Supreme Court to reconsider its ruling so other couples struggling with fertility, like Bobby and Sara, can have hope.

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