Haley on Alabama IVF ruling: ‘Embryos, to me, are babies’

Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley said Wednesday that frozen embryos produced through in vitro fertilization (IVF) are “babies” when asked about a recent Alabama Supreme Court ruling.

The former U.N. ambassador upheld an Alabama court’s ruling Monday that frozen embryos are children under state law.

“So to me, the fetus is a baby,” Haley told NBC News’ Ari Vitali during an interview in South Carolina on Wednesday.

An Alabama court made the decision after a group of IVF patients filed a lawsuit. Their frozen embryos were destroyed in December 2020 after one of the patients removed them from the cryogenic storage unit and dropped them on the floor.

Classifying embryos as children under state law raises questions about whether families relying on this method can practice it in Alabama.

Recent rulings could expose families and medical facilities to lawsuits.

Haley said the embryo was a baby, then added that she used artificial insemination to have her son, which is a different process than in vitro fertilization.

“So I had artificial insemination,” Haley said. “That’s how I gave birth to my son. So one thing you have to do is save the sperm or the eggs. But when you talk about the fetus you’re talking about to me, it’s about life and they When someone talks about it, I understand where it’s coming from.”

Haley said there needs to be respect when having conversations about families relying on IVF.

“I mean, I look at it and I want to know what they’re saying about viable kids and non-viable kids, how they’re handling it, how they’re talking about that language. Are you talking?” Haley said in response to a question about whether the ruling, if upheld, would limit a family’s ability to have children.

“These are all sensitive subjects where the details matter and we need to look at the details and see where it stands. There is.”

Haley has been campaigning in the Republican primary. sought “consensus” As Republicans struggle to navigate politics around the issue after the Roe v. Wade reversal in 2022, they are trying to find a happy medium on the abortion issue.