WASHINGTON (AP) – The Senate will vote for the second time this year on legislation that would establish a nationwide right to in vitro fertilization – the latest effort by Democrats in an election year to force Republicans to take a defensive stance on women’s health issues.
The bill, which the Senate will vote on Tuesday, has little chance of passing this Congress because Republicans blocked a similar bill earlier this year. But Democrats hope to use the extra vote to pressure Republican congressional candidates and create a contrast between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump in the presidential race, especially since Trump has called himself the “IVF leader.” “
The push began earlier this year when the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos can be considered children under state law. Several clinics in the state suspended IVF treatments until the GOP-led Legislature rushed to enact legislation to provide clinics with legal protection.
Democrats quickly capitalized and held a vote in June on Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth’s bill, warning that the U.S. Supreme Court could pursue the procedure next after it struck down abortion rights in 2022. The legislation would also increase access to the procedure and lower costs.
“The hard right has set its sights on a new target,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said in remarks Monday.
All but two Republicans voted against the Democratic legislation, arguing that the federal government should not tell states what to do. They said the bill was a serious effort.
Still, Republicans have sought to stand up to Democrats on the issue, and many have made it clear they support IVF treatments. Trump announced plans last month to require health insurance companies or the federal government to pay for shared fertility treatment, without further details.
In a conversation with Harris earlier this month, Trump said he was a “leader” in the case and spoke of a “very negative” ruling by an Alabama court that was later overturned by the legislature.
But the issue has threatened to become a vulnerability for Republicans because some state laws passed by their own party grant legal personality not only to fetuses but to any embryos that are destroyed in the IVF process.
Duckworth, a military veteran who used fertility treatments to have two of his children, has led the Senate’s legislative effort. “How dare you,” he said in comments to his GOP colleagues after the first vote to block the bill.
Republicans have tried to push for alternatives to the issue, including legislation that would prevent states from enacting express treatment bans, but Democrats have blocked those bills, saying it’s not enough.
Republican Sens. Katie Britt of Alabama and Ted Cruz of Texas tried in June to pass a bill that would threaten to withhold Medicaid funding in states where IVF is banned. Sen. Rick Scott, Republican of Florida, said in a speech at the time that his daughter was currently undergoing IVF treatment and proposed expanding flexibility in health savings accounts.
Cruz, who is running in Texas, said it showed that Democrats’ efforts to pass the legislation were a “cynical political decision.”
