Has technology outpaced morality? Case in point: The Alabama Supreme Court on February 16 seems to think so. In their 8-1 decision, America was thrust into a crisis of conscience, as Alabama outlawed the creation of In Vitro Fertilization, or IVF. In the bible belt, it has been determined that unborn embryos are children, made in the image of God, with rights to be protected. Joining us in this discussion of the implications of this landmark ruling is Rev. Jim Harden, founder of CompassCare pregnancy centers in Buffalo, New York.
Q&A/ Talking Points:
- The court’s opinion siding with parents against a fertility clinic that accidentally destroyed their embryos opens with, “unborn children are ‘children’ for the purposes of Alabama’s Wrongful Death of a Minor Act.” Do you agree and why?
Answer: Yes (with explanation)
- The landmark U.S. Decision that overturned Roe v Wade was the case of Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health but many states did a workaround to continue abortions. How is this Alabama case different?
Answer: The Alabama case is a classic Trojan Horse that could not only shut down the multi-billion-dollar In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) industry but also bring down the abortion industry in one fell swoop.
- How?
Answer: Quite simply, IVF is a process that uses medical technology to manufacture babies. The wrongful death of a child when applied to preborn embryos, reinforces the legal concept that personhood status for an individual begins at the moment of fertilization. Afterall, “A person’s a person no matter how small,” says Dr. Seuss.
- What do you say about people like House Speaker Mike Johnson who is ordinarily pro-life but apparently doesn’t truly understand what IVF entails?
Answer: IVF is wrong, just as abortion is wrong, because it treats children like slaves, to be created, owned, and discarded at the whim of a master class.
- What else is wrong about IVF? Answer: IVF intentionally destroys (aborts) babies at four different points in the IVF process. First, when the initial batch of embryos are created, the least desirable are culled (a.k.a. killed). Second, those considered the best by whatever criteria, is inserted into the mother’s uterus, most of which fail to survive implantation. Third, the unused embryos are frozen in liquid nitrogen, most unable to survive the freezing process. And fourth, if too many embryos implant in the mother’s uterus, then possible ‘reduction’ occurs which is surgical abortion as commonly understood. It is no surprise that IVF doesn’t even work that well, with studies showing extremely high failure rates.
- What about the prospects of an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court?
Answer: If appealed, the Alabama case could give the legal fodder necessary for the conservative-leaning Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) to weigh-in as to whether it is legitimate for government to draw arbitrary lines for determining when a person ought to be protected under the law. And, if personhood is established for all humans without qualification, then all preborn babies from the moment of fertilization must be afforded equal protection under the law per the 14th Amendment. And SCOTUS may just do that.
- Why? Explain.
Answer: Because they overturned the 1973 Roe v Wade decision which arbitrarily held, “The word ‘person’ does not apply to the unborn,” opening the door to do whatever one wants to preborn boys and girls, abortion, IVF, etc.
- What other implications might there be with Alabama’s high court decision?
Answer: It has far-reaching criminal and civil ramifications on the multi-billion-dollar IVF business. So now what happens if the embryo freezer of an Alabama fertility clinic goes on the fritz? This is why Alabama fertility clinics pressed the pause button on all their activity.
- How is the so-called abortion rights lobby responding to this case?
Answer: This case appears to be causing the pro-abortion community to lose their collective mind triggering emergency ham-handed Senate bills, an open letter from the Congressional Pro-Choice Caucus, and a roll-call on the issue through a nonbinding resolution. And responses by self-proclaimed anti-abortion people is catching them flatfooted too. House Speaker Johnson appears to be truly representing America’s, even pro-life evangelicals’ moral confusion regarding what it means to be human. When asked about the Alabama decision at a recent press conference regarding whether destruction of a “fertilized embryo is murder” he said, “Look, I believe in the sanctity of every human life — I always have — and because of that I support IVF and its availability.”
- You disagree with Speaker Johnson’s response. What should it have been?
Answer: He should have said, “No new IVF babies, but by all means implant all of them who have already been conceived and frozen. Time to put all of them in wombs, as is, without culling any of them. The only solution for this moral dilemma is to halt the creation of additional embryos through IVF and place all existing embryos, individually, in willing wombs.”
About Rev. Jim Harden:
Rev. James Harden, M.Div., is the CEO of the firebombed pro-life medical network CompassCare of Buffalo, New York. He has one wife and ten children. Rev. Harden says, “Money follows morality.” He is raising the alarm regarding corruption in federal law enforcement and public policy in a post-Roe America. He writes extensively on medical ethics, executive leadership, and pro-life strategy, predicting Dobbs in 2018 and the death of the “Red Wave” in 2022, and is currently sounding the alarm on the proliferation of human sex trafficking on the U.S. Southern border.
CONTACT: To schedule an interview, contact Robert Workman or Jerry McGlothlin at geraldmcg@outlook.com or 919-437-0001.
