- Senator Tammy Duckworth said she will call on the Senate to pass her bill by unanimous consent on Wednesday
- The Access to Family Building Act, introduced in January, protects access to IVF and other fertility treatments
- Lawmakers are struggling after the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that embryos are children
A group of Senate Democrats plan to force a vote on a bill to protect access to in vitro fertilization (IVF) and other fertility treatments after fertility clinics began suspending services following the Alabama Supreme Court’s ruling that embryos cannot produce children are.
Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., announced she will call on the Senate to set aside the proceedings and immediately pass the Access to Family Building Act via unanimous consent on the Senate floor Wednesday.
She made her announcement Tuesday surrounded by other Senate Democrats, who held a news conference to address the Alabama decision, which has sparked outrage across the country and left thousands of families trying to have children through IVF in limbo has brought.
“It may only be a matter of time before more hospitals make the same decision, before more courts make similar rulings, putting more women at risk,” Duckworth warned.
Last month, she joined Senators Patty Murray, D-Wash., and Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., in introducing legislation that would protect a person’s right to access fertility services such as IVF and health care providers who provide such services.
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
Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., said she will call for unanimous consent on her bill to protect access to IVF and other fertility treatments on the Senate floor on Wednesday. Duckworth said she would not have been able to become a mother without such treatment
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.”