“Enraging”: Meet Abbey Crain, IVF Patient in Midst of Treatment Derailed by Alabama High Court

Reproductive health and medical groups are asking the Alabama Supreme Court to rehear the case in which the justices ruled frozen embryos should be considered children. The decision sent shockwaves through the world of reproductive medicine regarding potential effects on access to in vitro fertilization and other fertility treatments. We speak with Abbey Crain, a journalist and artist who had been undergoing IVF treatments for nearly two years when the court made its ruling. She says her clinic has paused fertility treatments after the decision. “My first reaction was just sheer rage. I was extremely angry and, honestly, fell apart for a little bit,” says Crain, who describes the impacts of this decision on patients and the politics of reproductive health in the state today. “These men down the street from me who serve on the Alabama Supreme Court have more say over when I choose to become a mother right now than me.”