New bans on abortion have raised concerns over the future of fertility treatments like IVF. A reproductive lawyer weighs in on the implications.

RELATED: Roe v. Wade is overturned by Supreme Court https://bit.ly/3uearVv

IVF — the process by which eggs are removed, fertilized in a lab to create an embryo and then implanted to create a pregnancy — is responsible for about 84,000 babies born annually, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s about 2% of all births.

But the wording of some states’ anti-abortion laws is raising questions about the fate and legal status of those fertilized embryos, especially if conservative states pursue what are known as personhood laws, giving legal rights to embryos and fetuses.

Oklahoma, Louisiana and Nebraska, in particular, have already considered anti-abortion laws specifically granting protections to fertilized eggs, and other states’ proposed “personhood” laws could do the same.

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