California fertility physician Brian Acacio sued for ‘stealing’ embryos

A Southern California fertility physician who attended President Biden’s 2024 State of the Union tackle because the visitor of a Democratic California congressman has been accused in a bombshell lawsuit of creating off with dozens of {couples}’ embryos.

Dr. Brian Acacio had an IVF clinic in Orange County’s tony Laguna Niguel earlier than he all of the sudden closed the follow and had his medical license suspended for drug use, KTLA reported.

He took the embryos some three hours north to Bakersfield, main 26 distraught {couples} to sue for his or her return.

“I don’t know the place our embryos are, I don’t know in the event that they’re OK. It’s like a hostage scenario,” one of many ladies concerned within the lawsuit stated.” stated, in response to KTLA. “I really feel like they had been kidnapped.”

The civil go well with, filed in Orange County Superior Court docket, claims Acacio transported the embryos with out their permission after he failed to inform them his license had been suspended by the California Medical Board.

“When sufferers started to search out out about what had occurred, they demanded the quick return of their embryos,” Robert Marcereau, an legal professional for the agency representing the {couples}, stated throughout a press convention Tuesday.

“Dr. Acacio refused, stating he wouldn’t give again the embryos except sufferers signed a doc absolving him of any duty for his conduct.”

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Many sufferers solely realized their embryos had been relocated once they tried to schedule a switch — the ultimate stage of the in-vitro fertilization course of — or heard about Acacio’s transfer by different sufferers and social media, in response to the Los Angeles Occasions.

“Our first and most vital objective is the lawful, expeditious however secure switch of those embryos again to the place they belong,” legal professional Benjamin Ikuta stated. “He’s stolen these individuals’s embryos. He’s held their households primarily hostage, and we would like solutions.”

The authorized battles comes after the Medical Board of California issued an order stopping Acacio from working towards drugs after he allegedly violated restrictions positioned on his medical license. 

In response to the board, Acacio’s license was first positioned below restrictions in October 2025 that required him to abstain from managed substances and undergo organic testing.

However regulators later decided he violated these situations after testing optimistic for marijuana, prompting a cease-practice order on Dec. 30, 2025 barring him from treating sufferers except he accomplished a interval of detrimental drug assessments and receives authorization to return to work.

The lawsuit alleges Acacio continued to see sufferers even after his license was suspended and he didn’t disclose the disciplinary motion. Round that point, Acacio’s Laguna Niguel clinic was compelled to shut after falling greater than $240,000 behind on hire.

For a lot of {couples}, the ordeal has been emotionally devastating. “We’ve been by a lot,” Christina Chandler stated by tears on the press convention. “We simply want them to be accountable. We wish our embryos.”

Acacio was invited to President Biden’s closing State of the Union tackle by Rep. Mike Levin, whose North County San Diego and South Orange County.

On the time, Levin stated that Acacio has been “regularly named one of many high reproductive endocrinologists in California and within the nation,” noting that his “life-changing fertility work has helped 1000’s of California households.”

“As we defend reproductive freedom from assaults by extremist MAGA Republicans, I’m proud to face with Dr. Acacio and President Biden to make sure households have entry to the reproductive instruments and well being care they want,” Levin added.