WASHINGTON – Two Republican U.S. senators have joined forces to prevent states from banning in vitro fertilization, months after the Alabama state Supreme Court struck down access to the procedure by ruling that fertilized embryos could be used under state law Be right children.
Sens. Katie Britt of Alabama and Ted Cruz of Texas introduced one three-page invoice on Monday would cut a state’s Medicaid funding if that state banned in vitro fertilization.
“As a mother, I know firsthand that there is no greater blessing than our children, and IVF helps families across our country experience, grow and thrive in the joyful miracle of life,” Britt wrote in a statement. “This common-sense legislation affirms both life and liberty – family and liberty, and I look forward to working with my colleagues to make it law.”
Cruz wrote, “IVF has given miraculous hope to millions of Americans and the gift of children to families across the country.”
The bill comes months after the Alabama state Supreme Court passed the bill governed that fertilized embryos that had been frozen or not implanted constituted children under an 1872 law.
State lawmakers agreed, and Gov. Kay Ivey subsequently signed a law to provide civil and criminal protections to the state’s IVF clinics so they can resume operations. Questions, however remain and at least one of the state’s IVF clinics has this closed.
Democrats in Congress have introduced their own bills to ensure nationwide protection for IVF, although two of those bills were blocked by Republican lawmakers from quickly passing the Senate.
Republican Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith of Mississippi in overdue February prevented Illinois Democratic Senator Tammy Duckworth was blocked from receiving unanimous consent to pass a bill that would have protected IVF nationwide.
This bill would have blocked restrictions on “assisted reproductive technology services” that are “more burdensome than restrictions or requirements on medically comparable procedures, do not substantially improve the reproductive health or safety of such services, and unreasonably restrict access to such services.”
Oklahoma Republican Senator James Lankford in March clogged Washington state Democratic Senator Patty Murray stopped brief of quickly passing a bill that would have expanded access to in vitro fertilization for military members and veterans.
