Kamala Harris Responds To The Alabama Supreme Court Ruling On Frozen Embryos

On Feb. 16, the Alabama Supreme Court struck another blow to reproductive rights, ruling that frozen embryos are now considered children under state law.

While the ruling solely focused on the state of Alabama, the repercussions of it have rattled a nation already grappling with decreased abortion access, as Justice Jay Mitchell used anti-abortion rhetoric to justify the decision. “Unborn children,” he wrote in his majority opinion, “are ‘children’ under the Act, without exception based on developmental stage, physical location, or any other ancillary characteristics.”

The decision raises more questions than answers (e.g., Are unused embryos considered murder? If freezing children is illegal, is freezing embryos?), creating a type of Wild West landscape that’s thrown IVF treatments in Alabama into question. Two providers have already paused egg fertilization and embryo implantation until the parameters of the ruling are clarified.

“The logic behind it doesn’t even make sense,” Vice President Kamala Harris tells Bustle. “On one hand, we’re telling women who don’t want to be pregnant that they cannot get an abortion. On the other hand, we’re telling women who do want to be pregnant that they cannot use fertility treatments.”

On Feb. 22, Harris visited Michigan as part of her Fight for Reproductive Freedoms tour, where she met with leaders such as Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Sen. Debbie Stabenow, both of whom helped Michigan enshrine abortion access in the state constitution in 2022.

Below, the vice president talks with Bustle about Michigan’s reproductive rights leadership and how the Alabama ruling further politicizes family planning.

I want to start by asking about your talk with the Michigan leaders. How did it go?

It was really great. These leaders — who are nominated and elected leaders, faith-based leaders, and community activists — they really have done such a phenomenal job of organizing and empowering people. Their campaign, which resulted in Michigan being a leader on protecting reproductive rights, included door-knocking, seeing if people were registered to vote, and reminding people that [their vote can] make a difference, on an issue that is as big as this one.

As part of this tour, you’ve convened reproductive rights leaders in more than a dozen states. What commonalities have you seen across state lines?

I’m seeing the courage of women who are openly talking about their experience with abortion, and are sharing very difficult details about intimate, personal decisions, because they know it points to the tragedy of what is happening, and the harm that is happening every day since the Dobbs decision came down.

[And I’m hearing from] health care providers, who have the courage to give reproductive care even when they have to be in states where they could be put in jail for doing that work — the courage it takes to stand by their Hippocratic oath to take care of these patients.

On your tour, why prioritize states like Michigan, where abortion access is protected, as opposed to exclusively going to states where it’s under attack?

Well, I want to uplift the way we know it should be and can be. I want to have conversations that remind people it doesn’t have to be this way, people who are in states like Texas, Florida, and Georgia. So looking at a state as diverse as Michigan, it’s helpful to remind each person [that they] can make a decision based on what they believe to be in their own best interest, and not have the government tell them what to do.

There was a reverend here. We’re at a church today. And one of the points I say all the time: You don’t have to abandon your faith or their deeply held beliefs to agree that the government should not be telling women what to do with bodies. If they choose, they will consult their priest, or their pastor, or their rabbi, or their imam. The government should not be telling people what to do.

In Michigan, school districts currently aren’t required to provide sex ed, and I’m wondering what role you see sex ed having in educating people about reproductive rights and contraception, and whether you think it should be a requirement in schools.

I’m a daughter of a mother who researched breast cancer. I grew up learning about hormones at the kitchen table. I think it’s really important that all people understand how their bodies work, so that they can make healthy decisions about [their] future.

Looking to another state, Alabama, what was your immediate reaction to the recent court ruling that granted embryos personhood?

I have many feelings about it. First of all, you probably remember when the Dobbs decision came down, I talked about how IVF and contraception [could be at stake], not to mention Clarence Thomas, who said the quiet part out loud about LGBTQ+ rights.

So on one level, I’m not surprised. On another level, I’m completely shocked that yet another freedom for people to make decisions about their future, to make decisions about what they want in terms of a family [has been taken away].

Nikki Haley has said that she agrees with the Alabama ruling in the sense that embryos are children. What does that tell you about where the Republican Party is at?

I just think anyone who believes it’s OK to take these rights and freedoms is not in touch with where the American people are. Because the reality is that when you look at midterms, when you look at elections in the Midwest, when this issue of freedom and having control of your own body is up for election, the American people vote in favor of freedom, in red states and deep blue states.

You’ve talked about how women’s health care has always been important to you.

Yes.

Can you tell me about your introduction to reproductive rights specifically and when you started learning about pro-choice politics?

Oh, as early as I can remember. My mother’s work was about fighting for dignity and the well-being of women and girls specifically, and in the context of their reproductive systems.

The way that women’s health care has traditionally been handled has not always been in support of women’s autonomy, and their authority to make decisions that are based on their knowledge of themselves and their bodies.

One last question: In the Barbie movie, the film ends with her going to a gynecologist. What role does entertainment — movies and TV — play for you in normalizing reproductive health care?

I mean, listen, I think that everywhere and in every way that we can possibly educate people about [these issues, it’s helpful], and in a way that everyone, regardless of their gender, understands what’s at stake.

This interview was edited and condensed for clarity.