Fertility companies and patients are moving embryos and making contingency plans in case Roe v. Wade is overturned and abortion laws in some states extend to protect eggs fertilized in laboratories.
More than 2% of 3.7 million babies born in the U.S. in 2019 were conceived through in vitro fertilization, the latest federal data show. Many embryos created through IVF aren’t viable, fertility specialists said, and those that aren’t ultimately transferred into a uterus may be discarded. Some fertility and legal experts said the loss or discarding of embryos could be criminalized by statutes that ban abortion from the moment of fertilization or that grant personhood rights to embryos.