2024 GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley (R-S.C.) is siding with the recent Alabama Supreme Court ruling that determined frozen embryos created through in vitro fertilization are considered babies in the state.
"Embryos, to me, are babies," Haley told NBC News in an interview. "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 used her experience with artificial insemination, in which she used to have her son. She argued that it is a different process than IVF that does not include creating embryos in a lab.
The issue arose when a December 2020 lawsuit arose from an Alabama Supreme Court ruling brought by a group of IVF patients whose frozen embryos were destroyed after they were removed from a cryogenic storage unit and accidentally dropped on the ground.
"I know that when my doctor came in, we knew what was possible and what wasn't," Haley said about her experience. "We also took precautions of how this was going to go and how it wasn't so we knew before we went in exactly what we were looking at."
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Regarding the case, the justices ruled that Alabama's Wrongful Death of a Minor Act permitted parents to file a lawsuit over the death of a minor child— which "applies to all unborn children, regardless of their location."
After the University of Alabama at Birmingham announced on Wednesday that it was pausing IVF treatments in response to the state Supreme Court ruling, Haley said, "This is one where we need to be incredibly respectful and sensitive about it."
"Every woman needs to know, with her partner, what she's looking at. And then when you look at that, then you make the decision that's best for your family," the former U.N. ambassador said.
Haley has called for a "consensus" on abortion during her campaign message, while her GOP opponents have advocated for bans on the procedure.
Her un-Republican abortion stance goes in line with her approach of trying to appeal to non-conservative voters in open primary states. Haley has previously said that she would not push for a national abortion ban unless she had the votes in Congress to pass it.
