Senate Democrats renew election year push for IVF protections

Senate Democrats on Monday introduced a legislative package aimed at protecting access to in vitro fertilization (IVF), part of an election-year effort to focus on reproductive rights and get Republicans to publicly oppose those efforts.

The Right to IVF Act, sponsored by Senators Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Patty Murray (D-Wash.), and Cory Booker (DN.J.), is a package of four bills that would establish a national right to IVF and other assisted reproductive technologies, as well as reducing the costs of IVF treatment to make it more affordable.

The package includes the Family Building Access Act, the Veterans Family Health Services Act, the Infertility Treatment and Care Access Act, and the FEHB Family Building Fairness Act.

All four have been introduced previously, though only Duckworth’s Home Building Access Act made it to the Senate floor, where Republicans blocked an attempt to pass it by unanimous consent.

“In the nearly two years since the Supreme Court rejected Roe v. Wade, our nation has seen the terrible consequences of the Republicans’ anti-science, anti-woman crusade that has put IVF at risk for millions of Americans who rely on it to start or grow their families,” Duckworth said in a statement.

Duckworth tried to pass her bill in February, but Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.) opposed it, dismissing the bill as an overkill filled with “poison pills” that would go “far beyond ensuring legal access to fertilization in vitro”.

Democrats are criticizing Republicans over reproductive rights ahead of the November elections, and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (DN.Y.) plans to focus on the issue this month, ahead of the third anniversary of the repeal of the Roe v. Wade by the Supreme Court.

They are insulting access to abortion, contraception and in vitro fertilization, seeking to hold Republicans to the fire and force them to answer uncomfortable questions about the full impact of strict anti-abortion policies and their belief in fetal personhood.

To date, 13 states have introduced fetal personhood bills that would affect the legality of in vitro fertilization.

Access to in vitro fertilization took center stage this winter when the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that embryos are children and are therefore protected under the state’s wrongful death law.

The decision was met with immediate backlash from both sides of the aisle. Many Republicans rushed to distance themselves from the decision, saying they fully support in vitro fertilization, and the Senate GOP campaign arm called on candidates to reject attempts to regulate access to the procedure.

But Republicans have largely avoided detailing how clinics should handle viable, non-implanted embryos, as many seem to agree that embryos are children with equal rights.

In late May, Senators Ted Cruz (Texas) and Katie Britt (Ala.), staunchly anti-abortion Republicans, introduced a bill that they said aims to protect in vitro fertilization.

The legislation would prevent states from receiving Medicaid funding if they implement an IVF ban. Cruz and Britt also said the legislation would ensure that in vitro fertilization is fully protected under federal law, although it would not create a right to in vitro fertilization.

The bill creates an incentive for politicians not to pass legislation banning in vitro fertilization, but it would not prevent a court from restricting the procedure, as happened in Alabama.

“Unlike GOP legislation that would not protect IVF and is merely a public relations tool for Republicans to hide their extremism, our Right to IVF Act would actually protect Americans from attempts to restrict IVF. IVF and would allow more people to access these vital services at a lower cost. ,” Murray said.

This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story