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Earlier this week, the U.S. Senate failed to advance a bill that would federally protect the right to access in vitro fertilization (IVF), a process that assists people with becoming pregnant, particularly those with fertility issues.
The measure, sponsored by Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Illinois), who utilized IVF treatments in having her two children, received a majority of support in the narrowly divided Senate chamber, with 51 senators (all Democrats and two Republicans) backing the bill and 44 lawmakers (all Republicans) opposed. However, due to the Senate’s filibuster rules requiring 60 votes to advance legislation, the measure was blocked by the GOP.
Republican leaders claimed they opposed the bill because they viewed it as election-year politics — essentially an admission that their desire to hurt Democrats in the polls was greater than their desire to pass legislation supported by most of their constituents.
“This is not an attempt to make law. This is not an attempt to get an outcome or to legislate. This is simply an attempt by Democrats to try to create a political issue where there isn’t one,” Sen. John Thune (R-South Dakota), the Republican Whip, said in response to the bill.
Thune then claimed that “Republicans support IVF” — a statement that echoes those made by GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump, who has been on the defensive during this year’s campaign over his ever-changing stances on reproductive rights. Were it not for the three Supreme Court justices Trump appointed during his tenure as president, however, IVF would likely not be under attack.
The Supreme Court’s conservative shakeup under Trump led to a majority of justices overturning abortion protections that had been established by the 1973 decision Roe v. Wade. That action, in turn, led to the Alabama State Supreme Court deciding earlier this year that embryos had the same political rights as people, ruling in favor of litigants who sued in a wrongful death case against an IVF clinic in the state.
As a result of that ruling, IVF clinics across Alabama paused their services, resuming operations only when the state legislature and Gov. Kay Ivey (R) passed a law granting legal exceptions to IVF services, which, as part of their process, must dispose of unused embryos once a successful implantation by a client has taken place.
That action, however, is only protective of IVF clinics so long as the state’s Supreme Court doesn’t issue another ruling against it. Even Republican lawmakers who supported the measure noted that it was only a “temporary fix.”
In reaction to Republicans blocking the federal bill this week, Barbara Collura, President and CEO of the nonprofit RESOLVE: The National Infertility Association, issued a statement expressing skepticism over excuses from Thune and other GOP lawmakers.
“Since the Alabama ruling, we have heard countless claims from Congressional lawmakers that they support access to this life-changing healthcare. Today, we are reminded that promises without action are empty,” Collura said.
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