One of the main providers of IVF in Alabama announced today that it will shut down the practice at the end of the year, following a state Supreme Court ruling that frozen embryos are children.

Infirmary Health in Mobile, which faced several lawsuits over the destruction of frozen embryos, said it will temporarily resume IVF treatment for the rest of 2024 and then end the treatment.

“In order to assist families in Alabama and along the Gulf Coast who have initiated the process of IVF therapy in the hopes of starting a family, Mobile Infirmary has temporarily resumed IVF treatments at the hospital,” said an email statement from Infirmary Health spokeswoman Hannah Peterson. “However, in light of litigation concerns surrounding IVF therapy, Mobile Infirmary will no longer be able to offer this service to families after December 31, 2024.”

Three families had sued the hospital and the Center for Reproductive Medicine after an unauthorized person entered a storage area, removed several frozen embryos and then dropped them on the ground. The lawsuit sought damages for wrongful death of a child. A circuit court judge dismissed those claims.

But the Alabama Supreme Court overturned that decision in February, becoming he first in the country to rule that frozen embryos are “extrauterine children.”

Most of the state’s fertility providers paused in vitro fertilization after the court decision. Lawmakers then rushed to pass a bill providing legal immunity for doctors and IVF clinics.

Alabama Fertility and UAB restarted treatment after Gov. Kay Ivey signed the IVF protections into law, but treatment remained paused at Infirmary Health in Mobile until recently.

However, some experts have said the new law didn’t do enough to protect doctors and clinics.

Barbara Collura, president and CEO of RESOLVE: The National Infertility Association, said Alabama did nothing to clarify the legal status of frozen embryos in storage. In the past, patients had the option to destroy or donate embryos to science or other families, but it’s unclear whether all those options will remain available in the state.

“The law provides immunity from prosecution; it does not change the status of an embryo or list what can and cannot happen to an embryo outside the uterus in Alabama,” Collura said last month in an email.