IVF Patients, Doctors Navigate Fetal Personhood Laws’ Unknowns

People trying to start families and clinics trying to help them have been left confused and worried since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, triggering fetal personhood laws in several states.

By: Cheryl Platzman Weinstock

Outlets: KFF Health News

Published: November 4, 2026

Words: 1,804

Last Updated: 5 days, 13 hours ago

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In the summer of 2022, Allison Mertzman and her wife, Leanne, asked their fertility clinic to destroy their embryos.

The married couple were living in California but storing their nine embryos for $3,000 per year at the clinic in Michigan, where Mertzman had resided before. After having two daughters through in vitro fertilization, the couple had decided they wanted more children. But Mertzman was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2021, and the women were waiting …

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