WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate will vote for a second time next week on a Democratic bill aimed at bolstering support for in vitro fertilization, but Republican lawmakers are unlikely to change their previous course of opposition.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced the up-to-date election on Thursday afternoon and said he hoped Republicans would join forces with Democrats to the measure closer to final adoption. The bill would ensure patients’ access to in vitro fertilization.
“Republicans cannot, on the one hand, say they are family-friendly and then block family-friendly measures like federal protections for IVF and the child tax credit,” Schumer said. “But that’s exactly what they did this summer, and I hope we get a different result on our second vote.”
The Senate recently held a procedural vote on the bill in June, but did not come close to reaching the 60 senators needed to move forward.
The 48-47 Procedural coordination largely ran along party lines, with Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska breaking away from the Republicans and arguing for continued debate and a final vote on passage.
Louisiana Republican Senator Bill Cassidy spoke out against moving forward with the bill during the debate, saying the legislation was unnecessary because IVF is not currently banned in any state.
“Today’s vote is dishonest – pushing through a bill that is arbitrarily worded and doomed to fail does a disservice to everyone seeking IVF treatment,” Cassidy said at the time.
Democratic Washington State Senator Patty Murray spoke in favor of passing the bill, saying in June that it “should not be controversial, especially if Republicans are serious” about supporting access to IVF.
“As we saw in Alabama, the threat to IVF is neither hypothetical nor exaggerated, nor is it scaremongering,” Murray said.
Alabama state lawmakers were forced to grant criminal and civil protections to IVF clinics earlier this year after the state Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos were children under state law.
The Alabama judges’ decision resulted in all IVF clinics in the state temporarily closing their doors to patients, placing a huge burden on couples seeking to start or expand a family through this complicated, emotionally stressful and often steep process.
The issue also came up in the presidential election campaign and was controversial in the debate on 10 September by the Democratic candidate, Vice President Kamala Harris, and the Republican candidate, former President Donald Trump.
