DEFINING LIFE: Following a state Supreme Court decision that a fertilized embryo is an actual child with all protections of the law, the University of Alabama at Birmingham health system announced that it is putting a hold on in vitro fertilization treatments as it evaluates the ramifications of the ruling.

  For many women, in vitro treatment is their only hope to have a baby.

   “We are saddened that this will impact our patients’ attempt to have a baby through IVF,” a statement from the health system said, “but we must evaluate the potential that our patients and our physicians could be prosecuted criminally or face punitive damages for following the standard of care for IVF treatments.”

  The Alabama ruling referenced antiabortion language in Alabama’s Constitution and an 1872 statute that allows parents to sue over the wrongful death of a minor child, including “unborn children,” with no exception for “extrauterine children.”

  Alabama Chief Justice Tom Parker put a Biblical spin on it with a concurring opinion in which he wrote, “Even before birth, all human beings have the image of God, and their lives cannot be destroyed without effacing his glory.”

  The ruling would appear to make it a crime to destroy or dispose of unused fertilized embryos. It’s common practice to fertilize more than are needed to help a woman get pregnant. The university said it will continue with egg retrieval for the time being, but not with fertilization.

  This might be the next big thing in the anti-abortion movement, defining life and personhood at the moment of inception. If the US Supreme Court were to uphold this ruling, in vitro fertilization would be impossible and it would become illegal in the entire country to voluntarily end a pregnancy. Republican Presidential candidate Nikki Haley appeared to jump on the concept last night on CNN, saying that “I do think that if you look in the definition, an embryo is considered an unborn baby.”

THE WAR ROOM: Epidemiologists estimate that in the worst of scenarios escalation of the war in Gaza could lead to the deaths of 85,000 Palestinians from injuries and disease over the next six months. 

  The death toll is already pushing toward 30,000.

  A second scenario, based on the assumption of continued fighting and humanitarian relief at current levels, an estimated 58,260 people would die, according to the researchers, from Johns Hopkins University and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Infectious disease could make things worse.

  Desperate for food, gangs of Palestinians have been blocking and looting aid trucks and convoys. Leaders of aid groups have condemned the US for its veto this week of a cease fire that would have allowed more food and supplies into Gaza. 

FLYER MILES: The head of Boeing’s 737 Max program, following an embarrassing incident in which a door plug blew out of an Alaska Airlines jet, has been forced out in a leadership shakeup in which other people are also likely to lose their jobs. Boeing has been under pressure from regulators, airlines, and members of Congress to prove that it will make safe planes.

  Investigation revealed that the bolts to hold in that door plug on the Alaska jet were never installed. Boeing has said in recent weeks that it is overhauling its quality control process, including increased inspections at the Max production plant in Renton, Washington.

TRANS BAN: The Nassau County executive in New York is expected today to announce a ban on trans female athletes from participating on girls’ athletic teams that use the county’s 100 athletic fields and facilities. County Executive Bruce Blakeman told the NY Post that, “We are protecting girls’ right to compete against other girls. It makes no sense for biological boys who identify as transgender to compete against girls. It’s completely unfair.”

  This would appear to affect sports leagues that use county facilities. Blakeman said, ““Biological boys are faster, bigger, and stronger. They have a physical advantage against women.”

THE OBIT PAGE: Hydeia Broadbent, who was born with HIV and by age 6 became a voice of awareness for HIV and Aids, died on Tuesday at her home in Las Vegas. She was 39 and no cause was given.

  When still a child, Broadbent appeared in public and on television programs talking about living with HIV, hoping to educate the public in the midst of the AIDS epidemic. 

  In 1992, she appeared with Magic Johnson, the basketball star infected with HIV. “I want people to know that we’re just normal people,” the little girl said fighting through tears. She told the NY Times in 2006, “I think it just opened a lot of people’s eyes that HIV can happen to anybody, with me being so young,” 

THE SPIN RACK: President Biden cancelled another $1.2 billion in student debt, bringing the total of forgiven debt to $138 billion for nearly 3.9 million borrowers.  — Also from The White House, Biden has given his dog Commander to a family member after a spate of attacks in which the German Shepard drew blood. The dog is reported to have bitten Secret Service agents as many as 20 times. — John Avlon, who has frequently appeared as a liberal political analyst on CNN, has declared himself a candidate for Congress from Suffolk County, NY. He is married to Margaret Hoover, a conservative political commentator. That’s Washington. 

BELOW THE FOLD: Justice Samuel Alito Jr. renewed his criticisms of same-sex marriage in a five page opinion about people removed from a jury after voicing religious objections to gay relationships. The case “exemplifies the danger” from the court’s 2015 decision approving same-sex marriage, Alito said, and added that, “Americans who do not hide their adherence to traditional religious beliefs about homosexual conduct will be ‘labeled as bigots and treated as such’ by the government.”

  He says that as if they shouldn’t be.

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