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

Editor’s note: This report was updated to clarify Haley’s remarks.

Republican Presidential candidate Nikki Haley said that frozen embryos made using in vitro fertilization (IVF) are “babies” when she was asked Wednesday about the recent Alabama Supreme Court decision. 

“I mean, embryos, to me, are babies,” Haley to NBC News’s Ali Vitali during an interview following Monday’s ruling that frozen embryos are children under Alabama state law.

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

With classifying embryos as children under the state’s law, the question arises if families who would rely on the method can practice it in Alabama.

The recent ruling could throw families and health care facilities into lawsuits.  

Haley, after saying that embryos are babies, added that she used artificial insemination to have her son, a process different than IVF. 

“I mean, I had artificial insemination,” Haley said. “That’s how I had my son. So when you look at you know, one thing is to have to save sperm or to save eggs. But 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.” 

Haley said people need to be respectful when having conversations about families relying on IVF. 

“I mean, I would want to look at it and see what they’re talking about. Those that were viable versus those that are not, how they’re treating that, how they’re talking about that language,” Haley said when asked if the ruling will curb the ability of families to have kids if the ruling is upheld. 

“Those are all sensitive subjects where the details matter, and we need to look at the details and we need to see where that is. I mean, now when you see more women who are having trouble getting pregnant.” 

As she has campaigned in the Republican primary, Haley has called for a “consensus” on the issue of abortion, trying to find a happy medium as the Republican Party has struggled to navigate the politics of the issue after the overturn of Roe v. Wade in 2022.

–Updated on Feb. 22 at 7:33 a.m.