Nikki Haley now says ‘we don’t have a problem with IVF’ after initially deeming embryos ‘babies’
Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley attempted to further distance herself Friday from a recent Alabama Supreme Court ruling on embryos and in vitro fertilization — saying “we don’t have a problem with IVF facilities” after facing backlash for describing embryos as “babies” following the ruling.
“We don’t need government getting involved in an issue where we don’t have a problem. We don’t have a problem with IVF facilities. If you have a certain case, let that case play out the way it’s supposed to, but don’t create issues,” Haley told CNN’s Dana Bash.
“I think we want IVF to be as accessible as possible to parents who are wanting those blessings of having a baby,” she added. “We don’t want to take that away from parents who desperately want to have a child.”
Alabama’s highest court ruled Feb. 20 that frozen embryos can be considered children under state law, opening the door to restrictions on IVF treatments — a process that requires creating and discarding multiple embryos.
Haley, 52, — who has drawn the ire of pro-life activists by speaking out against federal restrictions on abortion — appeared to back the ruling after it was handed down.
“Embryos, to me, are babies,” Haley told NBC News in an interview on Feb. 21. “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, a mother of two grown children, noted she had used artificial insemination — a process which also involves creating embryos in a lab — to have her son Nalin.
Later in the day, Haley denied that her statement meant that she agreed with the court.
“I didn’t say that I agreed with the Alabama ruling. What the question that I was asked is, ‘Do I believe an embryo is a baby?’ I do think that if you look in the definition, an embryo is considered an unborn baby,” Haley said on CNN’s “King Charles.”
“The difference is — and this is what I say about abortion as well — we need to treat these issues with the utmost respect,” she added.
The former South Carolina governor then went on to say she disagreed with the ruling and that Alabama should reconsider its state laws.
“I think that the court was doing it based on the law, and I think Alabama needs to go back and look at the law,” Haley told CNN’s Jake Tapper on Feb. 22.
Donald Trump, Haley’s rival on the campaign trail, released a statement the following day distancing himself from the Alabama ruling.
“Under my leadership, the Republican Party will always support the creation of strong, thriving, healthy American families,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post on Feb. 23. “We want to make it easier for mothers and fathers to have babies, not harder!”
On Thursday, Alabama’s legislature advanced a pair of bills that would shield fertility clinics from prosecution and civil lawsuits after three major providers in the state announced a pause in IVF services following the ruling.
