Legal AF by MeidasTouch - Right Wing MAGA Court GETS MORE INSANE with SHOCK Ruling

Episode Date: February 21, 2024

The Alabama Supreme Court just found that a weeks-old embryo created through IVF treatment has MORE RIGHTS than its mother and father. Alabama has now become the 12th state to join the “personhood�� movement, its Supreme Court ruling that an embryo that is destroyed could lead to murder charges and/or a wrongful death lawsuit, which could mean the end of IVF as a family planning technology in such states. Michael Popok of Legal AF reports. Upgrade your sleep with Miracle Made! Go to https://TryMiracle.com/LEGALAF and use the code LEGALAF to claim your FREE 3 PIECE TOWEL SET and SAVE over 40% OFF. Visit https://meidastouch.com for more! Remember to subscribe to ALL the MeidasTouch Network Podcasts: MeidasTouch: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/meidastouch-podcast Legal AF: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/legal-af The PoliticsGirl Podcast: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-politicsgirl-podcast The Influence Continuum: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-influence-continuum-with-dr-steven-hassan Mea Culpa with Michael Cohen: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/mea-culpa-with-michael-cohen The Weekend Show: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-weekend-show Burn the Boats: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/burn-the-boats Majority 54: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/majority-54 Political Beatdown: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/political-beatdown Lights On with Jessica Denson: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/lights-on-with-jessica-denson On Democracy with FP Wellman: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/on-democracy-with-fpwellman Uncovered: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/maga-uncovered Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This morning, a first of its kind decision by the Alabama Supreme Court that could put families access to fertility treatments in the post-Roe era at risk. The court determining frozen embryos qualify as people under its state law, ruling unborn children are children without exception based on developmental stage. The chief justice in a concurring opinion, quoting the Bible, citing the sanctity of unborn life. We have kind of what is just a brand new landscape for the law. The case in question involved a patient who managed to access the freezer storing frozen embryos at an Alabama fertility clinic. The patient picked up multiple embryos and mistakenly dropped and destroyed them. The state's high court says that patient

can now be held liable in a wrongful death lawsuit. At this point, there is no decision on when a physician or a clinic can conclude storing these embryos. So they are potentially liable for the wrongful death of an embryo after the parents have passed. We're concerned that this ruling has far-reaching consequences for what we feel is safe to freeze and safe to discard. In 2021, more than 238,000 families in the U.S. relied on in vitro fertilization or IVF to have a baby. Multiple embryos are often frozen

to increase the likelihood that one will successfully implant. Doctors like Mamie McLean in Alabama warned the ruling could block women from accessing IVF, make the process more expensive or force some clinics to close altogether because of legal risks. Because this ruling is so incomplete and it leaves those of us who are sitting face to face with patients just with the inability to comment on what is safe and what is legal for them right now. This is part of a broader push by some states to put new restrictions on women's reproductive rights. Alabama is one of 13 states that now has a total ban on abortion in the wake of the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.

The court is expected to issue its decision on whether to put restrictions on the widely used abortion pill nationwide in the coming months. Michael Popak, Legal AF with some unfortunate news coming out of Alabama and the Alabama Supreme Court, court who has ruled that a person who accidentally destroyed an embryo that was created through IVF process could be charged for wrongful death because, in the words of Alabama now, that embryo, just after the moment of fertilization, is a person who can be protected under the Constitution and its criminal statutes, which will put a chilling effect over all uses of IVF in Alabama and potentially in other places as 11 other states join with Alabama to find that personhood, and therefore constitutional and criminal law protection, begins at fertilization. This is something I can empathize with. I am soon to be a new father, and although it was done naturally, we used IVF, my wife and I, and would

not hesitate to use it again, except now when you're criminalizing all aspects around the IVF embryos and forgiving them this personhood protection, now you're going to make not only parents and people that want children to think twice about embarking down that technological and scientific avenue, but you're going to make clinics and doctors think twice about even offering their services in this area for fear that they could be prosecuted, lose their medical license, licenses and be subject to large insurance or malpractice types claims that could wipe them out. All because there's a group of people who believe the Bible overrides our rights under

the Constitution of the United States and in other places, and our due process and equal protection rights. In fact, you don't have to believe me, I'll just quote to you from the Supreme Court of Alabama's decision, including that of its Chief Justice, who in his concurrence, meaning he joined with every member of the Alabama Supreme Court but one, to rule that fertilization creates personhood, that an unborn, listen to the vocabulary being used here, and the loaded vocabulary here, the unborn child is a child that requires protection, as opposed to saying an unborn fetus who's newly fertilized is not a person. You see how this is going down this slippery slope here. In fact, the chief justice and his concurrence

cited to the Bible. I mean, here's an example where there is no, I mean, in one way, I want to credit the person for saying the quiet part about the separation of church and state out loud, that they're not separating it, that Alabama has decided to be a theocracy and to allow the church to make decisions about people's reproductive rights and a woman's reproductive rights. And in particular, the judge that I'm talking about, I want to read this for you. the judge that I'm talking about, I want to read this for you. Chief Justice Tom Parker talked about the sanctity of unborn life in the Alabama Constitution, and he said, and I quote, even before birth, all human beings bear the image of God, and their lives cannot be destroyed without effacing his glory. I'm not making this up. The judge who wrote the decision,

Jay Mitchell, wrote for the majority that under, he felt his hands were tied, that under the 1872 state law allowing parents to sue over the death of a minor child, a minor child now extended to a fertilized embryo in Alabama and 11 other states, and this anti-abortion language which is embedded in the Alabama Constitution, then he therefore ruled in his ruling that was joined by the majority, all actually, almost a unanimous decision, he said, quote, unborn children are children. Again, the loaded vocabulary, incorrect assessment of the development from embryo to fetus to born live child. Unborn children are children without exception based on developmental stage, physical location, or any other ancillary characteristics. Now the judges have become metaphysical, they've become gynecologists, they've become doctors, and they've become religious figures all in one. Did you know that your temperature at night can have one of the greatest impacts on your sleep quality? If you wake up too hot or too cold, I highly recommend you check out Miracle Maid's

bedsheets. Inspired by NASA, Miracle-Made uses silver-infused fabrics and makes temperature-regulating bedding so you can sleep at the perfect temperature all night long. Using silver-infused fabrics originally inspired by NASA, Miracle-Made sheets are thermoregulating and designed to keep you at the perfect temperature all night long so you get better sleep every night. These sheets are infused with silver that prevent up to 99.7% of bacterial growth, leaving them to stay cleaner and fresher three times longer than other sheets. No more gross odors. Miracle Sheets are luxuriously comfortable without the high price tag of other luxury brands and feel as nice,

if not nicer, than bed sheets used by some five-star hotels. Stop sleeping on bacteria. Bacteria can clog your pores, causing breakouts and acne. Sleep clean with Miracle. Go to trymiracle.com slash Legal AF to try Miracle made sheets today. And whether you're buying them for yourself or as a gift for a loved one, if you order today, buying them for yourself, or as a gift for a loved one. If you order today, you can save over 40%. And if you use our promo Legal AF at checkout, you'll get three free towels and save an extra 20%. Miracle is so confident in their product,

it's back the 30-day money-back guarantee. And if you're not 100% satisfied, you'll get a full refund. Upgrade your sleep with Miracle-Made. Go to trymiracle.com slash legal AF and use the code legal AF to claim your free three-piece towel set and save over 40%. Again, that's trymiracle.com slash legal AF to treat yourself. Thank you, Miracle Made, for sponsoring this episode. Like, how did we even get here? Doesn't there, Popak, doesn't there have to be a case that brings this up? And there is. Unfortunately, in 2022, a person somehow accessed the frozen embryo storage facility. They actually call it a nursery in Alabama that's used for IVF treatment in Mobile, Alabama.

And I'm sorry, in 2020, this patient, for whatever reason, wandered into the area and removed several embryos, dropping them on the floor and killing them. I don't know if it was intentional. I got to guess. A patient finds his way into an embryo nursery and destroys some of them. Sounds like somebody who's against IVF and the IVF process. So anti-abortion groups already are cheering the Alabama decision. Lila Rose, who's president and founder of something called Live Action, said that each person, again, you need to understand the vocabulary in this area, personhood, the march towards personhood at the earliest possible moment, in this case, under the church's view of fertilization.

Each person from the tiniest embryo to an elder nearing the end of his life has incalculable value that deserves and is guaranteed legal protection. You see how they're spinning this. guaranteed legal protection. You see how they're spinning this. And now the result is that one out of six people, including me, who have used, and my wife, who have used IVF as a process, are now going to have to think twice about whether they're ever going to do that again. I will tell you from our own experience, even though people know my background, know that, you know, we're expecting, we were fortunate. We were able to do it naturally, but not before we went through a couple of rounds of IVF. And it's nothing to be ashamed of, but now we have to think

twice about it. Because if you decide to freeze an embryo under the Alabama constitutional framework, and this personhood, embryo as personhood framework, then, I mean, oftentimes, a number of the embryos may not be viable, or they're kind of low on that viability stage. They call it low mosaic or high mosaic. And you might, but they say it's a science, but it's an art. They may not be exactly able to tell whether that embryo is viable. And so you may end up implanting one that has a low chance of viability, but yet it can create ultimately a viable embryo, fetus, and then child. But now, if you decide to, in your choice, you decided to do something with your created embryo, you could be charged on this

Alabama law with murder or wrongful death or charged criminally, or your doctors can, or their clinics. And this is the insidious march of an intrusion of church into state, into your rights and my rights that we're now seeing manifest in Alabama, while the United States Supreme Court sits firmly on the sidelines, having created this chaos, this dystopia, where women are prosecuted for exercising their bodily autonomy and their right to choose. Prosecuted. Where women are forced and compelled by state actors to carry unviable fetuses or embryos to term because of the laws of that state, and or their doctors will lose their medical license and or be prosecuted. And this hellscape has been created by the United States Supreme Court and Sam Alito

in particular, who in their decision decided in the Dobbs decision a year ago March that they would rip away a right for a woman to choose and rip away a 50-year constitutional right for a woman to exercise her own bodily autonomy and leave it to the states. Well, you see what happens when you leave it to the states It's like leaving slavery to the states I'm sure a couple of them and we could probably all name a few Would come up with a great idea to restart their agrarian society with forced labor We don't allow that our constitution as labor. We don't allow that. Our constitution as a people, we don't allow that. There's just certain things. We don't allow to go to popular vote, okay?

We'd be scared if we knew what the popular vote would result in. We're all sitting on the edge of our seats now about whether a convicted felon likely is going to be elected our president of the United States. I mean, it's one thing to have an actor or a business person, but a convicted felon, a sexual, a sexual, a rapist, a defamer, a fraudster, a person who denies our alliances around the world, that's going to be the president potentially. It's mind boggling. But the Supreme Court created this mess. Sam Alito said, it's not our concern in the Dobbs decision about what the states do. It's a state's rights issue. Well, now we're watching. Women in Alabama now have even less rights than they did under the Dobbs decision because their Supreme

Court has misinterpreted, misapplied old-timey law from 1872 and constitutional provisions and put them together in an unholy alliance of con law, literally, and old law and said a woman has no rights, we're gonna put her back into the 1870s. Why don't we just strap her to a covered wagon, right? And put her back where these Alabama men who are on the Supreme Court believe she should be, which is at home, barefoot and apparently immediately pregnant, and that embryo considered a person with more rights under this analysis than the actual person, the woman and her husband have, right? Calling everything a person just diminishes life and diminishes being a being, being a person. It doesn't enhance it. I'm not made better off because a fertilized embryo through IVF is given the equal status under the law as I am. I'm worse off because of the reasons that we just described.

Getting upset after hearing information like this is a stage of grief, but it's also we need activism because this is a contact sport. So when you get information like this, one of the things you can do off of hot takes like this one on the Midas Touch Network is to do something about it. And it's not just write your congressman, that's important, but it's make sure that you vote and that we start getting in and getting back elected officials and judges who are often elected officials and get them into office who share our morals and our values and our love of the Constitution and the separation of church and state, and a woman's right and bodily autonomy, and the right of a family to make

decisions, the most intimate decisions, about their reproductive rights and family planning, and whether they're going to use IVF or not, because it's a choice, not because they have to worry about the sword of Damocles hanging over their head, that of the hospitals and doctors and medical licensing boards that could bring all this crashing down. It should be a choice of born human beings, not something that's taken away from them by the unborn embryo. I'm sorry this has turned into a choice, a right for choice, but there's no other way as a bulwark against the personhood movement.

And you need to understand the ramifications of it so you can take better action and you can make better decisions. That's what we do here on the Midas Touch Network and on Legal AF. On Wednesdays and Saturdays, we don't blow smoke or sunshine. We just give you updates and curate information for you at the intersection of law, politics, and justice. And this one, I believe, was important, and that's why I'm here. So until my next hot take, until my next Legal AF, this is Michael Popak reporting.