Two couples who sued an IVF clinic and a Mobile hospital after their embryos were destroyed in a case that paved the way for a controversial Alabama Supreme Court ruling have dropped their wrongful death lawsuit.
Mobile County Circuit Court Judge Jill Parish on Wednesday granted James and Emily LePage’s and William Tripp Fonde’s and Caroline Fonde’s dismissal of the lawsuit against the Center for Reproductive Medicine and Mobile Infirmary Medical Center with prejudice. That means the couples cannot file the legal action again.
The couples accused the defendants of wrongful death, negligence and breach of contract in two lawsuits filed in 2021 in Mobile County Circuit Court.
David G. Wirtes, one of the attorneys for the LePages and the Fondes, did not give a reasoning for why the dismissal was sought when he filed it on Tuesday.
Efforts by AL.com to reach Wirtes were not immediately successful.
Parrish had thrown out the case in 2022, claiming that embryos are not children, but her decision was overruled by the Alabama Supreme Court in February.
The Wrongful Death of a Minor Act “applies to all unborn children, regardless of their location,” wrote Alabama Supreme Court Justice Jay Mitchell.
“[T]he Wrongful Death of a Minor Act is sweeping and unqualified. It applies to all children, born and unborn, without limitation. It is not the role of this Court to craft a new limitation based on our own view of what is or is not wise public policy. That is especially true where, as here, the People of this State have adopted a Constitutional amendment directly aimed at stopping courts from excluding ‘unborn life’ from legal protection.”
The decision drew nationwide backlash and spurred IVF clinics in Alabama to halt operations amid concern that they would face lawsuits.
It also led the Alabama Legislature to pass a bill giving IVF clinics immunity from criminal and civil lawsuits.
Infirmary Health, which runs Mobile Infirmary, announced in April that it will no longer provide IVF treatments beginning in 2025.
Wednesday’s dismissal comes roughly a month before Parrish was set to hold a hearing on the defendants’ request to stay the case because they intended to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to review the case. But as of Wednesday, the defendants had not filed that review with the high court.
Efforts by AL.com to reach the defendants’ attorneys were not immediately successful.
Before the dismissal, the plaintiffs also requested Parrish to rule that Alabama’s new law shielding IVF clinics from wrongful death lawsuits is unconstitutional.
