What’s next for IVF after a controversial legal ruling

Good morning! It's Wednesday, February 21st. I'm Mark Garrison, in for Shumita Basu. This is Apple News Today. Coming up, the uncertain fate of IVF treatments after a legal ruling, unions under fire in Florida, and the sad, short lives of today's appliances.

But first, let's take a brief look at some other stories in the news. The World Food Program is pausing deliveries to northern Gaza. It says aid workers were facing gunfire and looting, with a, quote, "collapse of civil order in the region." The agency says it wants to resume deliveries as soon as possible. And for the third time, the U.S. vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. The U.S. said the resolution would undermine hostage negotiations.

If he does not have funds to pay off the judgment, then we will seek judgment enforcement mechanisms in court, and we will ask the judge to seize his assets.

Trump is appealing the ruling. And in sports, Lionel Messi starts his first full Major League Soccer season today.

In the league's season-opening match, he'll lead Miami against Salt Lake City. When Roe v. Wade was overturned, reproductive rights activists warned that IVF could be targeted in courts. Now we have a major new ruling affecting frozen embryos.

In Alabama, the state Supreme Court recently ruled that frozen embryos created during IVF have the legal status of children. The case involved an incident at a fertility clinic. A patient dropped and destroyed frozen embryos that belonged to other people. They sued the clinic using an 1872 state law involving wrongful death of minors. The Alabama Supreme Court ruled that the law applies to, quote, "unborn children." Frozen embryos are a major part of the IVF process.

You can end up with something like 10 fertilized eggs, but you may only want to have one child.

"Alabama Reflector" reporter Alander Rocha is on the story.

So, what these parents are concerned about is, will I have to pay for this for the rest of my life? And will my children have to pay to keep the frozen embryos stored?

This ruling means clinics could now be sued over destroyed frozen embryos. Patient advocates worry that this ruling could limit or even end IVF in Alabama.

They're scared that providers simply won't want to provide these services if they're under the constant threat of litigation.

And it's likely this doesn't end in Alabama, that similar cases will come up in other states. Around one in six people are affected by infertility, so any rulings threatening IVF treatment could limit options for a lot of families. The CEO of the National Infertility Association told Rocha about the painful uncertainty this is creating for people who want children.

She said that right now the rights of these embryos are no longer in the hands of the people who created them. And this could be appealed and it could change,

but right now, people just don't know what to do.

Unions have been flexing their muscles in America lately, with auto workers and Hollywood actors and writers striking. But in Florida, many unions are struggling. About a year after Governor Ron DeSantis signed a sweeping anti-union bill into law, waves of teachers, accountants, janitors and other government workers are in danger of losing their union protection. Rich Templin, with Florida's AFL-CIO, spoke to the public broadcaster "WLRN" about the law's impact.

The work conditions of these hundreds of thousands of people are going to be up in the air. And that's real lives, right? That's not politics, that's not pro-union, anti-union. It's none of that. It's people's lives are going to be upended.

The law decertifies a union if it doesn't meet certain standards. It requires 60% of members to pay dues, a higher bar. But it also makes those dues harder to collect by ending the standard practice of automatic paycheck deductions. If public sector unions don't have enough dues-paying members, they face losing their collective bargaining rights. They have to get enough worker signatures or win a new union election to be able to continue.

If you don't have a sufficient number of joining, then that should not be the bargaining unit if you don't even represent the majority of people.

But many labor leaders say the law was designed to be difficult to comply with, and the actual goal is wiping unions out. And they point to a double standard: It does not apply to unions that have historically supported Republicans for law enforcement, firefighters and correctional officers. One labor economist told "WLRN," Florida's law might be one of the strongest anti-union rules ever passed by a state.

And the story shows tens of thousands of workers have already lost their collective bargaining rights, even though those rights are protected by Florida's constitution. Finally, your dishwasher is gonna die. And your oven, washing machine, and fridge. All of our appliances eventually let us down and have to be replaced.

The problem today, as "The Wall Street Journal" reports, is that appliance lifespans are getting shorter and shorter. You might expect your stove to last a lot longer than the ones your grandparents used. But often these days, the newer the appliance, the sooner is breaks. And that means we're spending a lot more to repair and replace them. The stats are pretty brutal. Household spending on appliances is skyrocketing. So are requests for repairs.

If you have appliances that are working good and they have no problems, I would not replace them.

They're probably going to outlast any new units that you put in.

You can read the whole journal piece on unreliable appliances and all the stories we talked about in the Apple News app. And if you're already listening in the News app right now, we've got a Narrated Article coming up next. "Rolling Stone" speaks with young Black voters who helped Biden get into office in 2020. This time around, they aren't so sure about supporting him. If you're listening in the Podcasts app, follow Apple News Plus Narrated to find that story.