(WASHINGTON) — Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley said in an interview Wednesday that she agrees with an Alabama Supreme Court ruling that frozen embryos are considered people in the state.
“Embryos, to me, are babies,” Haley told NBC News.
“When you talk about an embryo, you are talking about, to me, that’s a life. And so I do see where that’s coming from when they talk about that,” the former U.N. ambassador said.
Asked about some of the potential ramifications of the court’s decision, however, Haley said, “This is one where we need to be incredibly respectful and sensitive about it.”
Haley, who said she used artificial insemination to have her son, noted that women need to speak with their doctors about their goals and what’s best for their family.
“I know that when my doctor came in, we knew what was possible and what wasn’t,” Haley said. “We also took precautions of how this was going to go and how it wasn’t so we knew before we went in exactly what we were looking at.”
“Every woman needs to know, with her partner, what she’s looking at. And then when you look at that, then you make the decision that’s best for your family.”
A majority of the justices in Alabama found on Friday that “unborn children are ‘children’ … without exception based on developmental stage, physical location, or any other ancillary characteristics.”
Alabama Chief Justice Tom Parker quoted the Bible in a concurring opinion, citing the sanctity of unborn life.
Some outside advocates have warned that reclassifying the embryos as people rather than property could create new complications in procedures such as in vitro fertilization.
On Wednesday, The University of Alabama at Birmingham paused IVF procedures following the Alabama Supreme Court decision due to fear of lawsuits and prosecutions.
Alabama is one of 13 states that implemented a total ban on abortions in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, which had protected the constitutional right to abortion.
The U.S. Supreme Court is also expected to rule on another case about abortion pill access in the coming months.
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