Senate Republicans on Thursday blocked legislation that would have codified the right to access infertility treatments such as in vitro fertilization, in the latest election-year bid by Democrats to spotlight their Republican opponents for protecting reproductive freedom.
In a vote of 48 to 47, all but two Republicans opposed advancing a bill that would give Americans the legal right to seek infertility treatment and decide how their reproductive material should be used, stored and disposed of. That left the bill well short of the 60 votes needed to advance, something Democrats had anticipated and even welcomed as part of a strategy to remind voters of Republicans’ positions on abortion and reproductive health issues.
“We will continue to work with Republicans,” Sen. Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat and majority leader, said at a news conference before the vote. “But they seem to be entirely in the throes of the MAGA far-right minority on this issue.”
The move comes a week after a test vote on a bill that would have mandated nationwide access to contraception in federal law, which Republicans also blocked.
It also comes a day after the Southern Baptist Convention, the country’s largest Protestant denomination and a precursor to the American evangelical movement, voted to oppose the use of IVF. The decision could put many conservative lawmakers in a much harder political position on the issue.
Republicans have struggled to find a winning message on IVF that appeases their far-right evangelical base without alienating more mainstream conservatives. Many of them support legislation that says life begins at conception, which could severely limit aspects of IVF. Treatment typically involves creating and freezing several embryos and then implanting just one or two. At the same time, many conservative lawmakers were quick to express support for fertility treatments after the Alabama Supreme Court ruled in February that frozen embryos should be considered children.
Asked whether he agreed with the Southern Baptist Convention’s position that IVF is unethical because frozen embryos are human, Alabama Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville said, “I wouldn’t go that far.” But he suggested that he was ambivalent.
“I would have to look at the scientific side of it,” Mr. Tuberville, who co-sponsored a fetal personhood bill in the last Congress, said Thursday. He said he supported IVF treatment but “something to think about” about whether frozen embryos should be destroyed.
Since the Alabama decision, Democrats have emphasized the importance of protecting access to fertility treatment and IVF.
The bill Democrats are trying to advance this week, the Right to IVF Act, is sponsored by Senator Tammy Duckworth of Illinois. The bill codifies the right to infertility treatment and requires government insurance providers serving federal employees, military members, and veterans to provide coverage for it.
Americans overwhelmingly support access to IVF treatment. According to a survey conducted by the Pew Research Center last April, seven out of 10 adults said it was a good idea to undergo IVF, while only 8% said the opposite. 22% said they were not sure.
As Senate Democrats seek to put Republicans on the record with positions at odds with most voters, Republicans in the House sought to attach an anti-abortion amendment to the annual defense policy bill. The House was scheduled to vote on a proposal from Republican Rep. Beth Van Duyne on Thursday. The proposal would prohibit the Department of Defense from paying for and reimbursing abortion care, including transportation costs.
Across the Capitol, only two Republicans, Senators Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, crossed party lines to support Duckworth’s bill. Other Republican senators denounced the measure as a “show vote” and listed several reasons for their opposition, while also asserting their unequivocal support for IVF.
Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn accused Democrats of playing political games with IVF, given that it is legal in all 50 states and is in no danger of becoming illegal.
“The only reason they do this is to scare people,” Mr. Cornyn said.
Several Republicans, including Sens. Rick Scott of Florida, Ted Cruz of Texas and Josh Hawley of Missouri, said they would never give Democrats a chance to submit their own proposals to protect IVF. But the Republican-proposed measure has garnered little support on its own. It does not grant a positive right to infertility treatment.
In the Senate, Republicans have tried to blunt political accountability on the IVF issue through their own legislation. Mr. Cruz and Alabama Republican Sen. Katie Britt have introduced a bill that would block Medicaid funding to any state that bans IVF treatment. But the bill had only three Republican co-sponsors, drawing the ire of anti-abortion groups. Abortion rights supporters also charge that it is pointless for states to severely restrict access to fertility treatment but not ban it outright because it does nothing to protect access to it.
Mr. Duckworth called the Republican bill “a sham.” That’s because the law doesn’t explicitly protect IVF providers from prosecution or civil liability under the law that claims fetuses are people.
“If fetal personhood exists and they don’t address that issue, you’ll see what happened in Alabama. All IVF clinics will close,” she said.
Mr Britt said Mr Duckworth’s bill was a “violation of religious freedom” and implied that people who did not believe in IVF treatment could be forced to provide it. But Democrats point out that the bill does not force anyone to provide such treatment.
