On Friday, Feb. 16, the Alabama Supreme Court released its 8-1 decision declaring embryos are people and those who harm them may be liable for their death, forcing clinics providing in vitro fertilization to shut down and parents receiving such treatment to halt it or travel elsewhere.
Tom Parker, the court’s chief justice and author of a Bible- and theology-quoting concurring opinion, celebrated that day with an appearance on a podcast hosted by Johnny Enlow who, like Parker, advocates Seven Mountain Dominionism, which teaches Christians should rule over unbelievers in all aspects of society.
“God created government,” Parker told Enlow, “and the fact that we have let it go into the possession of others, it’s heartbreaking for those of us who understand. And we know it is for him.”
Parker’s comments, first reported by the progressive group Media Matters for America, weren’t surprising for those familiar with his resume. Before he joined the court 20 years ago, he helped found and lead the Alabama Policy Institute, a state group affiliated with Focus on the Family and its 40-state Family Policy Alliance.
He embraces three key tenets of Christian nationalism — that the U.S. is a Christian nation, that its laws should be ordered according to Christian teaching, and that only professing Christians should lead. He briefly served as an aide to Alabama Judge Roy Moore.
“Alabama ushers in the theocracy,” wrote Ruth Marcus of Parker’s opinion.
Parker claims to present a Christian argument about when life begins, but Christians disagree on the issue.
Around 2% of babies born in the U.S. each year depend on IVF, a procedure that has been available since the 1970s and has been forbidden by the Catholic church since 1987 because the procedure results in many embryos that are disposed of. The Washington Post reported on the religious implications of the court’s decision.
Many evangelicals, including former Vice President Mike Pence, heartily endorse IVF as a “pro-life” alternative to barrenness, while absolutist anti-abortionists oppose it.
Since Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022, support for abortion rights has risen, and voters in seven states have protected access to health care for women. Republican strategists now counsel candidates to avoid the term “pro-life.”
In the wake of the Alabama court’s ruling, many Republican leaders there and elsewhere rushed to affirm their support of IVF. In Alabama, state legislators in both parties are working on bills to carve out protections for IVF, and in Florida, legislators rushed to pause their personhood bill.
But U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson and nearly 125 of his House colleagues support the Life at Conception Act, which includes similar personhood language and would pose similar legal challenges to Americans seeking IVF treatment if enacted, which is unlikely.
“Suddenly, Republicans are making a point to emphasize that they support something their own very recent proposals could clearly have imperiled.”
“Suddenly, Republicans are making a point to emphasize that they support something their own very recent proposals could clearly have imperiled,” claimed a columnist writing about the GOP’s “buyer’s remorse” after a string of abortion victories that have been unpopular with a majority of Americans.
Judge Parker cited Genesis and theologian Thomas Aquinas in his opinion, but scholar Charles Camosy told theWashington Post Parker’s reading of the acclaimed theologian was “at the very least tone deaf.”
Aquinas didn’t say personhood begins at conception. Instead, ensoulment is a process that happens as the fetus develops, Camosy said. Much Jewish teaching also reflects the belief that ensoulment is a process.
The Southern Baptist Convention has not officially weighed in on the issue, but SBC apologist Al Mohler recently echoed Catholic thinking when he criticized IVF for separating procreation from heterosexual intercourse.
Mohler’s article in World also claimed IVF has been commodified and abused by people who never should have children: “The same technology that can allow a heartbroken young married couple the promise of pregnancy and a baby can, with donor gametes, be used by a same-sex couple or even a single woman to ‘have’ a baby. A single man or male couple can hire a surrogate to ‘have’ the baby for them. Thanks to IVF, the entire process can now be made into a market for babies as commodities, with sperm and eggs and embryos and rental wombs available in a dark market.”
The National Association of Christian Lawmakers, a group supported by health-and-wealth preacher Andrew Wommack, plans to discuss potential state legislation at its upcoming meeting in June, according to The New York Times. The legislation would declare that life begins at conception and could pose a threat to IVF.
