Senate Republicans blocked a bill Thursday to create a national right to in vitro fertilization (IVF), as Democrats sought to put Republicans on the defensive on a reproductive rights issue ahead of the November election.
For the bill to pass, 60 votes were needed, meaning nine Republicans had to break ranks and vote with the Democrats. The final vote was 48 to 47, with only two Republicans defecting: Senators Susan Collins (Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska).
The Right to IVF Act, sponsored by Democratic Senators Tammy Duckworth (D), Patty Murray (D), and Cory Booker (D), is a package of four bills that would both establish a federal right to IVF and other assisted reproductive techniques and reduce the cost of IVF treatment to make it more accessible.
Thursday’s vote is the latest in a series of votes scheduled by the Senate’s Democratic leadership to codify reproductive rights.
Democrats want to drive a wedge between Republicans and make it clear that they oppose these efforts, especially since the Republican Party is still unsure how to articulate its position on reproductive rights following the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade.
“Protecting IVF should be the easiest yes vote the Senate has taken all year. Republicans cannot say they are pro-family and then vote against protecting IVF,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (DN.Y.) said on the floor Thursday.
Thursday’s vote came a week after Republicans blocked a similar Democratic bill that would have guaranteed the right to contraception.
Republicans criticized the vote as an election-year ploy and raised concerns about unfunded mandates and the impact on religious freedom.
President Biden released a statement sharply criticizing Republicans for blocking the bill.
“Once again, Senate Republicans have refused to protect access to fertility treatments for women desperate to get pregnant,” he said in a statement.
“Republican officials have had every opportunity to protect reproductive freedom since the extreme Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wadebut they refuse to do so. Instead, the Republicans’ threatening, unrealistic agenda is destroying women’s health and lives.”
GOP senators on Wednesday attempted to introduce their own alternative IVF bill sponsored by Senators Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Katie Britt (R-Alabama).
The attempt to pass the bill unanimously was blocked by Murray.
The bill “expressly allows states to impose restrictions and burdensome requirements that would force IVF clinics to close,” Murray told reporters on Wednesday. “This bill is nothing more than a public relations stunt that gives Republicans a way to continue to pretend they don’t control women’s bodies.”
The bill would bar states that enforce a ban on IVF from receiving Medicaid funds. Cruz and Britt also said the bill would ensure that IVF is fully protected by federal law, although it does not create a right to IVF.
The Republican bill would give politicians an incentive not to pass legislation banning IVF, but would not prevent a court from restricting the procedure, as happened in Alabama, and would still allow restrictions on the storage, implantation and disposal of embryos.
In the Senate on Wednesday, Britt said the Democrats were only trying to create fear.
“Unfortunately, they are not interested in a bill that actually protects access to IVF, nor in figuring out how we can get the bill enacted. That would not serve their real goal, which is partisan electoral politics,” Britt said.
Following the vote, all Republican senators signed a statement “strongly supporting” continuing nationwide access to IVF, an issue that moved to the forefront of electoral politics after the Alabama Supreme Court ruled in February that embryos are children and thus protected under the state’s wrongful death law.
Since the court’s ruling in February, Republicans have been vocal in their unconditional support of IVF, but have largely avoided the core issue: If they believe life begins at conception, how should clinics handle viable embryos that are not implanted?
IVF treatments often involve retrieving multiple eggs, fertilizing them, and then freezing them to boost the chances of successful implantation and pregnancy. If an embryo is not viable, genetic abnormalities are detected, or a patient does not want to have any more children, standard medical practice is to discard it.
Thursday’s vote also came a day after the Southern Baptist Convention, the country’s largest Protestant denomination, voted against in vitro fertilization. The delegation criticized the destruction of embryos and called on Southern Baptists to “use only those reproductive techniques that are consistent with this affirmation, particularly with regard to the number of embryos created in the IVF process.”
Updated: 15:43
