There is a growing rift in the long marriage between anti-abortion activists and Republican lawmakers.
The problem came into view last month, after a bombshell decision from the Alabama supreme court temporarily halted in vitro fertilisation (IVF). The ruling, which described frozen embryos as “extrauterine children”, unravelled when the Republican-controlled legislature passed shortterm protections for IVF providers.
Under a new law signed last week by Republican governor Kay Ivey, IVF providers are temporarily protected from civil litigation and criminal