(NEWSnet/AP) — Alabama lawmakers gave final approval Wednesday to legislation protecting in vitro fertilization providers and patients, less than a month after the state Supreme Court upended fertility practices with a ruling that frozen embryos are legally protected as children.

The state House and Senate gave final approval to a bill that would protect providers from lawsuits and criminal prosecution for the “damage or death of an embryo” during IVF services.

Gov. Kay Ivey immediately signed it into law Wednesday night.

The state’s three major IVF providers paused services after the Alabama Supreme Court’s ruling last month.

The state Supreme Court ruled that three couples who had frozen embryos destroyed in an accident at a storage facility could pursue wrongful death lawsuits for their “extrauterine children.”

The ruling, treating an embryo the same as a child or gestating fetus under the wrongful death statute, raised concerns about civil liabilities for clinics.

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