WASHINGTON – Senate Democrats are making a renewed effort to show their support for ensuring nationwide access to in vitro fertilization, unveiling legislation Thursday that is part of an election-year effort to highlight republican resistance to protect reproductive care.
Senator Tammy Duckworth, an Illinois Democrat who fertility treatment used To have her two children, she introduced a bill called the Right to IVF ACT, which would also make the right to IVF more accessible through insurance, as well as for military personnel and veterans. Although two Senate Republicans have introduced their own proposal that would discourage states from banning IVF treatment, neither bill is expected to gain the significant bipartisan support that would be needed to pass Congress.
Instead, Democrats are trying this month to show how Republicans are, for the most part, unwilling to support legislation that would create federal protections for reproductive care. It’s a similar strategy that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, used in the run-up to the 2022 elections after the Supreme Court overturned the national right to abortion.
“This will be one of the most important issues of the presidential campaign, and make no mistake, Joe Biden is completely in favor of women’s reproductive rights. Donald Trump has opposed them repeatedly,” Schumer said at an event in his home state last week.
After Roe v. Wade was overruled, reproductive care issues were mostly turned over to individual states. For a time earlier this year, several clinics in Alabama suspended IVF treatment after the state Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos can be considered children under state law. Later, the state enacted a law that provides legal protections for IVF clinics, but Democrats argued that Congress should act to ensure nationwide access to reproductive care such as IVF and contraception.
Schumer also intends to force a procedural vote this week on a separate bill that would guarantee the right to contraception, but Republicans are expected to oppose that measure as well. Still, the pressure registers the Republicans’ views on an issue that must be discussed. what’s on voters’ minds when they vote this fall.
Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, said in an interview last month that he was working on a policy to regulate access to contraceptives – and denied the comments a few hours later on social media, saying that he “never has and never will” advocate restricting birth control and other contraceptives.
Since the Supreme Court tilted conservative and struck down the national right to abortion two years ago, Republicans have largely opposed telling states what to do, even if it means restricting reproductive care in some places. Nearly every Republican in Congress said they personally supported in vitro fertilization, but resisted legislation that would guarantee nationwide access to fertility treatment.
GOP lawmakers were also careful not to interfere with abortion opponents. ability to promote state laws that grant an embryo or fetus the same rights as a person. Senators Katie Britt of Alabama and Ted Cruz of Texas have introduced a proposal that would threaten to withhold federal Medicaid funding from any state that enacts a blanket ban on IVF treatment.
When she introduced the bill last month, Britt said in a statement: “IVF is pro-family, and I am proud to strongly support continued nationwide access to this path to parenthood for millions of couples. Americans facing infertility.”
Still, some far-right Republicans have opposed expanding access to in vitro fertilization. After the Department of Veterans Affairs announced in March that it would provide fertility services to veterans who are single or in same-sex marriages, four Republicans from the deeply conservative House Freedom Caucus released a letter opposing the measure and saying the treatment was “morally dubious.” ”. and it should not be subsidized by the American taxpayer.”
Schumer said Democrats intend to “spend a significant amount of time talking about reproductive rights” this month. As part of that push, Duckworth, alongside fellow Democrats Sens. Patty Murray of Washington and Cory Booker of New Jersey, introduced legislation that brings together four previous in vitro fertilization bills.
The bill would make it a right to use IVF and other reproductive technologies and make them more affordable by requiring employer-sponsored insurance plans and other public insurance plans to cover fertility treatments. Military personnel and veterans would also have greater access to fertility counseling and treatments.
“Struggling infertility is painful enough – every American deserves the right to access the treatment and tools they need to build the family of their dreams, without fear of being sued for murder or manslaughter,” Duckworth said in a statement. .
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