Republicans fuel bill that would ensure access to IVF nationwide in election year win for Democrats

Senate Democrats forced an electoral vote on a bill to protect access to in vitro fertilization (IVF) and other fertility treatments, putting Republicans on the spot.

Despite the legislation’s defeat Thursday, all 49 GOP lawmakers in the Senate signed a memo declaring they “strongly support continued access to IVF nationwide.”

They disagreed with the Democrats’ bill, saying it goes too far and is a “political stunt.”

Last week, Republicans also blocked another Democratic-led bill to secure access to contraception, saying it was a “false scare tactic” ahead of the election.

Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Katie Britt, R-Ala., have their own version of a bill to provide IVF and fertility services, but Democrats say it doesn’t go far enough.

The vote comes months after fertility clinics began suspending services following the Alabama Supreme Court’s ruling that embryos are children. The decision sparked outrage across the country – from Republicans and Democrats alike – and left thousands of families trying to have children through IVF in limbo.

A month later, Alabama’s Republican Governor Kay Ivey signed a law protecting access to IVF following the outcry.

Thursday’s vote also came hours after the Supreme Court upheld access to the abortion pill mifepristone and dismissed a lawsuit that would have affected abortion access nationwide.

It is the conservative court’s first major decision on reproductive rights since it overturned Roe v. Wade, which ended the constitutional right to abortion nationwide in 2022.

Mifepristone is used in more than half of abortions in the United States and has been used by more than 5.6 million women since its approval in 2000.

“The anti-abortion movement is not done yet,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Thursday.

Now that Roe is gone, Republicans have set their sights on a new goal: in vitro fertilization. So today the question for the Senate is very simple: Do we agree that Americans should have the freedom to use IVF if they wish?”

The vote comes months after fertility clinics began suspending services following the Alabama Supreme Court’s ruling that embryos are children

Senate Democrats are pushing for a bill to protect access to fertility treatments, the Access to Family Building Act, after the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that embryos are babies

Earlier this year, Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., along with Sens. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., introduced legislation that would protect a person’s right to access fertility services such as IVF and fertility . healthcare providers who provide such services.

The bill would also protect an individual’s rights with respect to the use or disposal of his or her reproductive genetic material and would allow the Department of Justice to bring civil action against any state or government official who violates such protections.

Duckworth noted that the issue is very personal to her. The senator and mother of two daughters is the first sitting senator to have a baby while in office. She noted that she was only able to become a mother through IVF after her military service in Iraq.

Duckwoth denounced the ruling, saying that the people who claim to “defend family values” are actively trying to implement policies that would prevent Americans from creating such families.

Senate Democrats’ push to protect IVF is the latest effort as families, health care providers and officials are in turmoil in the wake of the Alabama bombing, which is raising concerns that clinics could be held liable for destroying of fertilized eggs.

Some fertility clinics in Alabama have already halted treatments for fear of prosecution, as the ruling opened the door to wrongful death lawsuits in all cases where embryos do not survive being thawed and transferred to the uterus.

Embryo selection for IVF shown under a light photomicrograph – the treatment is overwhelmingly popular with Americans

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

President Biden called the ruling “outrageous and unacceptable” in a statement.

Democrats have rejected the decision as a direct result of the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to overturn Roe v Wade.

“Make no mistake: this ruling is a direct result of Donald Trump’s promise to overturn Roe v. Wade — and I have been warning for years that IVF would be next,” Duckworth said Tuesday.

She placed the onus on Senate Republicans, saying that if they “really care about the sanctity of families, they should show it by not blocking this bill.”

Republicans are trying to reject the Alabama ruling.

Former President Donald Trump said he would “strongly support the availability of IVF” and called on Alabama to find an immediate solution.

GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley said she considers frozen embryos to be babies, but later tried to clarify that she was not saying she agreed with the Alabama ruling.

Former President Trump called on Alabama to find a solution following the ruling and said he supports the availability of IVF treatment. Democrats say the AL ruling is the direct result of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v Wade with the addition of three justices he appointed

Haley, who spoke in general terms about her personal struggles with fertility, said she used artificial insemination to have her son Nalin, the second of her two children. She said she views embryos as babies, but later clarified she disagreed with the Alabama ruling

The National Republican Senatorial Committee also told DailyMail.com that none of their candidates support a ban on IVF.

Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said in a statement after the court ruling that he supports IVF treatment.

But he and 124 other Republicans in the House of Representatives supported the Life Begins at Conception bill last year. It does not provide for an exclusion for IVF treatment, although it does say that nothing in the bill “shall be construed as authorizing the prosecution of a woman for the death of her unborn child.”