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By Sharon Kimathi, Energy and ESG Editor, Reuters Digital

Hello!

A ruling by the Alabama Supreme Court that frozen embryos created and stored for in vitro fertilization (IVF) are children under a state law allowing parents to sue for wrongful death of their minor children, has caused heated debate.

Critics say by enshrining the idea of “fetal personhood,” the Alabama Supreme Court ruling could inspire further restrictions on women’s reproductive freedom around the U.S.

President Joe Biden, a Democrat, said in a statement on Thursday that the ruling had put access to fertility treatment “at risk for families who are desperately trying to get pregnant,” and that it showed “outrageous and unacceptable” disregard for personal choice.

Also on my radar today:

• UK’s FCA plans to lift veil on investigations early
• Moroccan solar plans hampered by dispute over technology
• Early jacaranda bloom sparks debate about climate change in Mexico

A medical technician prepares embryo and sperm samples for freezing at the Laboratory of Reproductive Biology CECOS of Tenon Hospital in Paris, France. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier

IVF treatment typically involves the creation of multiple embryos in order to maximize the chance of a successful pregnancy, leaving some unused.

The Alabama case was brought by three couples who filed a wrongful death suit and were seeking damages from a center storing their frozen embryos after a patient accessed and destroyed them.

The three families’ lawsuits accuse a Mobile, Alabama fertility clinic, Center for Reproductive Medicine, and the hospital where it is located, Mobile Infirmary, of failing to properly safeguard frozen embryos, resulting in their destruction.

The Alabama Supreme Court ruled that embryos, including those kept outside of the uterus, are “children” under the state’s Wrongful Death of a Minor Act.

The high court ruled that Alabama’s constitution clearly considered embryos “unborn children… without exception based on developmental stage, physical location, or any other ancillary characteristics,” citing a constitutional amendment that Alabama voters approved in 2018 which granted fetuses full human rights, including the right to life.

The court, whose nine justices are all elected Republicans or appointed by a Republican governor, further found that there was no “unwritten exception” for frozen embryos outside of a woman’s uterus.

Chief Justice Tom Parker drew widespread attention for his overtly religious concurring opinion, in which he wrote that the state constitution includes the “theologically based view” that “human life cannot be wrongfully destroyed without incurring the wrath of a holy God.”

The ruling forced some IVF clinics to halt their operations, stoking anger among patients and those who called it another infringement on women’s reproductive rights.

The U.S. Supreme Court overturned the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade case that recognized the constitutional right to an abortion in 2022. 

That left it up to states to determine legality within their borders. Conservative states, such as Alabama, have since imposed near total bans on abortion procedures.

Getting “fetal personhood laws” – recognizing fetuses as having the full legal rights of people – passed has long been a goal of anti-abortion activists. Alabama is one of several states that have passed provisions granting some measure of legal protection to fetuses.

Legal experts say it could inspire legislatures, courts or activists in other states.

In fact, Florida lawmakers have paused efforts to pass a bill that would have provided protections to an “unborn child” but possibly hurt the state’s IVF clinics, as it did in Alabama, the Washington Post reported on Monday.

One possible path to get the issue before the U.S. Supreme Court would be for families now unable to access IVF treatment to bring a new lawsuit arguing that their federal constitutional rights were violated when they lost access to their healthcare.

However, the current U.S. Supreme Court, with its 6-3 conservative majority, has not been sympathetic to such arguments, and made clear in its 2022 ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson allowing states to ban abortion that it was leaving questions about legal protections for fetal life to states.

A researcher at Procter & Gamble’s CoRE Fabric and Home Care Robotics Laboratory works in the company’s floor care products, in Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S. REUTERS/Timothy Aeppel

Daryn Dodson, founder and managing director of Illumen Capital, an impact private investment fund, shares his thoughts on the role that gender and race inequality plays in governance and climate relief:

“For too long, corporations have missed one of the key areas of driving outperformance.

“When we look at the massive opportunity of latent value in the economy due to barriers facing the environmental technology revolution and the vast, largely untapped resource of outperforming women and people of color entrepreneurs, we must ask the question, where is the investment to unlock this value?

“Perhaps the greatest area of underestimation lies within the asset management business.

“Only 1.4% of $82 trillion of capital is managed by women and people of color. In fact, our Stanford SPARQ research reveals that the higher black fund managers perform, the more they are overlooked relative to their white counterparts. 

“This means that black fund managers, and likely women and people of color who led venture funds that focus on environmental transformation, are undercapitalized relative to the value they create due to bias. 

“This is not only a problem for underrepresented fund managers but also the world because these fund managers are often closest to the problems, including environmental challenges, and solutions.”

The gender pay gap at some of Australia’s top corporations including Commonwealth Bank, national carrier Qantas and oil and gas explorer Woodside is bigger than the national average of 19%, new data showed on Tuesday.

The government released for the first time data on gender pay gaps at firms with more than 100 employees, following legislation that passed in March 2023 which forced them to reveal the pay of male and female employees.

Entomology technician Thomas Dixon collects eggs from a fly cage at Entocylcle insect farm in London, Britain. REUTERS/Isabel Infantes

Today’s spotlight drops us underneath a set of railway arches in central London where hundreds of thousands of buzzing little flies showcase insect-farming technology that could help fight climate change.

At its research center, eight-year-old startup Entocycle is aiming to show how the process of turning protein-rich bugs into food for chickens and pigs could be adopted on a large scale.

The flies themselves feed on almost any food waste and are better for the planet than traditional animal foods such as soy, which have a much higher carbon footprint, explains founder and chief executive Keiran Whitaker.

Insect protein has become a popular alternative in recent years across agriculture and aquaculture as demand for animal feed surges, with companies including U.S. food giant Cargill adopting the use of insect feed.

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