Alabama ruling that embryos are ‘children’ underscores need for abortion amendment in Md. | STAFF COMMENTARY

Late last week, the Alabama Supreme Court released a ruling that determined frozen embryos are children under state law, observing that those who destroyed them could be held liable for causing a wrongful death. The decision stemmed from two  lawsuits brought by three couples whose frozen embryos were destroyed in a fertility clinic accident. The all-Republican court, in a majority opinion written by Justice Mitchell, made the sweeping claim that the embryos didn’t merely hold the potential to be children, but were children, regardless of their development stage, physical location or “other ancillary characteristics.”

This is an extraordinary leap that suggests the justices are more attuned to theology than science. Indeed, the decision comes with biblical references, including Chief Justice Tom Parker’s observation in a concurring opinion that “Even before birth, all human beings bear the image of God, and their lives cannot be destroyed without effacing his glory.” Clearly, a line has been crossed on the march to embryonic personhood. How long before the marchers cross state and regional lines and impose their will on others?

This is an issue for Maryland, where a constitutional amendment will appear on the ballot this November seeking to enshrine the right to abortion in the state. Larry Hogan, the former two-term Republican governor who’s running to succeed retiring Ben Cardin in the U.S. Senate, recently acknowledged that he doesn’t support the amendment. He also said he doesn’t support a national ban on abortion, either. In other words, Hogan is trying to find a middle ground on women’s reproductive rights in the hopes Maryland voters will send him to Congress.

But the middle ground is not safe for women. The possibility that a Republican majority in both chambers of Congress would seek to further roll back reproductive options that many took for granted during the Roe v. Wade era is too dire. Would a senator from Maryland with, at best mixed views on abortion rights, provide much of an impediment to such a crusade? Two years ago as governor, Hogan vetoed legislation allowing nursing practitioners and some other non-physicians to perform abortions in Maryland. The General Assembly overrode that action, but Governor Hogan subsequently used the power of his office to block funding to train such providers, despite pleas from the president of the Women’s Legislative Caucus of Maryland.

When the nation has gotten to the point where a “clump of cells” — as the CEO of RESOLVE: The National Infertility Association has referred to frozen embryos — will be treated as a fully formed person, then actual people should be alarmed. First in line ought to be those couples seeking in vitro fertilization, where women’s eggs are fertilized outside the womb before being transferred into a healthy uterus. Such procedures account for 4 million births (1-2% of the total) in the United States each year, but what medical lab would possibly take such a risk if unsuccessful attempts could be regarded as wrongful deaths?

Think that’s a stretch? In October, two months before Ohio enshrined the right to an abortion in its constitution, a woman was arrested there and charged with “abuse of a corpse” for miscarrying a pregnancy at 22 weeks in her bathroom at home. A grand jury declined to indict her last month, but how long before other women are charged elsewhere, in states still without such constitutional amendments, for even earlier miscarriages?

Polls, including Gallup surveys conducted since the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision, striking down a constitutional right to abortion, show broadening support for abortion access, with more than two-thirds of Americans believing abortion should be available in the first three months of pregnancy. Many of those people are undoubtedly Republicans, yet GOP lawmakers elected to represent the will of the voters, and others from that party in power, do not seem to be getting the message.

Maryland is very different from Alabama in many ways, but the recent ruling there sends a warning that we can’t be complacent. Our representatives should stand behind the ballot amendment, regardless of their party, and in so doing, stand behind women.

Baltimore Sun editorial writers offer opinions and analysis on news and issues relevant to readers. They operate separately from the newsroom.