SAN ANTONIO — A San Antonio doctor is offering financial relief for Alabama residents seeking in vitro fertilization treatment after the state’s Supreme Court ruled cryo-preserved embryos could be considered children.
“I think it goes against our philosophy of Pozitivf where we believe that everybody, every single person, has a right to have a child," said Dr. Francisco Arredondo, who goes by Paco and leads the Pozitivf Fertility clinic. "Having a healthy child is a universal human right."
“Our friends from Alabama, some of them (are) in desperate need of having a child and now they are not going to be able to do it in their state,” added Arredondo.
Pozitivf Fertility provides services including in vitro fertilization and intrauterine insemination.
The Alabama Supreme Court’s ruling prompted Arredondo to act by offering up to $2,000 in travel expenses for residents of the Bible Belt state who are unable to secure IVF services, and intend to receive treatment at the Pozitivf clinic.
The ruling stems from a lawsuit filed by an Alabama couple whose embryos were dropped and destroyed at a fertility clinic. The legal decision paves the way for residents to sue under the state’s Wrongful Death of a Minor Act.
Arredondo called the Alabama Supreme Court’s ruling “appalling” while hoping the legal decision will reignite conversations about what is considered a human or not.
“It is not possible to think that a couple of spores are a fern, that a silicon chip is not a computer. These people are really equating a couple of cells into a human,” Arredondo said.
He noted the average cost of IVF treatment in the U.S. hovers between $15,000 to $20,000 while Pozitivf Fertility offers services for more than $7,000. He also hopes the ruling leads to establishing laws nationwide that protect IVF treatment.
“We really want to take advantage of this negative news and make something positive out of it because that’s our mission at Pozitivf Fertility. We are here to make it more affordable,” said Arredondo. "We want to extend this to people in Alabama. I want to think positive that all this is going to trigger a virtual cycle of more people talking about it and making the difference between some cells and a human.”
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott expressed support on CNN over the weekend for Texas families to access IVF treatments, but stopped short of calling on lawmakers to pass legislation that defends the procedure.