Daily Mail poll shows Americans resoundingly back IVF - with 60% saying procedure should be legal... but ethnic minorities and Republicans are most skeptical

Americans of all ages and political persuasions have backed IVF in an exclusive poll by DailyMail.com - despite Alabama's contentious supreme court ruling last month.

Overall, 60 percent said the treatment should remain legal, while just 12 percent said it should be illegal, according to our survey of 1,000 voters. 

Meanwhile, 27 percent said they did not know either way. 

The groups with the slimmest majorities in favor of in vitro fertilization (IVF) were Blacks and Latinos, people aged 18 to 29 and Republicans.

By contrast, the largest support was among people over 65, whites, college graduates and Democratic voters.

The results come after the fertility treatment was thrust into the spotlight last month when a court in Alabama ruled frozen embryos have the same rights as children.

While the Alabama ruling did not directly restrict IVF, it could open the door to wrongful death lawsuits for embryos that are discarded.

J.L. Partners conducted the poll on behalf of DailyMail.com earlier this month. It included a sample of 1,005 likely voters 18 years and older collected online. 

We asked: 'Do you think IVF treatment should be legal or should be illegal in the United States?'

Women were more likely than men to support IVF, with 64 percent saying it should be legal compared to 56 percent of men.

Similar shares, however, of men and women - 13 and 12 percent, respectively - said it should be illegal. 

Among age groups, Americans 18 to 29 years old were the least likely to support the fertility treatment, with less than half - 48 percent - believing it should be legal.

Respondents 30 and older all agreed IVF should be allowed under law, with approximately 62 percent of every other age group saying so. 

College graduates were more likely to support legalization than non-graduates - 71 percent compared to 53 percent. 

Additionally, two-thirds of white Americans believe IVF should be legal, but less than half of Hispanic and Black people - 49 and 48 percent, respectively - said the same. 

Among political parties, nearly half of Republicans, 48 percent, support the fertility treatment, compared to 68 percent of Democrats and 65 percent of Independent voters. 

While successful and having been performed since the 1980s, IVF has become controversial recently as debates about abortion and when life begins become more contentious.

The highlighted states have laws on the books stipulating that life begins at the moment of fertilization. In Louisiana, the intentional disposal or destruction of a human embryo is illegal

Typically when a person is trying to conceive, multiple embryos are created, frozen and stored and the most viable one is eventually implanted.

Not every embryo created may be implanted and result in a live birth, however, either because it is not healthy enough or a person decides they no longer want to use their embryos. 

In some of these cases, they will be discarded. 

Alabama's GOP Governor signs bill to protect IVF after state Supreme Court ruling led centers to pause offering the treatment

Alabama Republican Governor Kay Ivey signed a law protecting in vitro fertilization providers after a state Supreme Court ruling said frozen embryos should be considered children.

But with Alabama's ruling establishing the specimens as people, those opposing abortion who argue life begins the moment of fertilization say destroying embryos should be illegal and treated as a crime.

And with the threat of prosecution looming, the fear is that doctors will stop performing IVF, severely limiting access to the treatment and making it nearly impossible for some people to have children.

Though Alabama Republican Governor Kay Ivey recently signed a bill that would protect IVF practitioners. 

The ruling came from a lawsuit brought by a group of IVF patients whose frozen embryos were destroyed in December 2020 when someone removed them from a cryogenic storage unit and dropped them on the ground.

One judge quoted the Bible in his decision, saying it would protect 'the sanctity of unborn life.' 

The ruling stated: 'The Wrongful Death of a Minor Act applies to all unborn children, regardless of their location,' including 'unborn children who are located outside of a biological uterus at the time they are killed.'

For people struggling to conceive due to age or health conditions, those who wish to have a child without a partner or same-sex couples, IVF is a common form of assisted reproductive technology (ART), representing more than 99 percent of all ART procedures performed. 

The Department of Health and Human Services reports approximately nine percent of married women and nine percent of men experience some form of infertility.

As a result, an estimated one-in-eight women has received some form of fertility assistance in their lifetime. 

In 2021, the most recent data available, 86,140 infants born in the US - 2.3 percent - were conceived through the use of ART.