WASHINGTON — Republicans have blocked for the second time this year legislation to establish a national right to in vitro fertilizationArguing that the vote is an election year stunt after Democrats forced a vote on the issue.
The Senate vote was the latest attempt by Democrats to force Republicans into a defensive stance on women’s health issues and highlight policy differences between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump in the presidential race, especially since Trump calls himself a ” leader in IVF. “
The vote of 51 to 44 was short of the 60 votes needed to move forward on the bill, with only two Republicans voting in favor. Democrats say Republicans who insist they support IVF are hypocrites because they won’t support legislation guaranteeing a right to it.
“They say they support IVF — look, vote on it,” said Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth, the bill’s lead sponsor and a military veteran who has use fertility treatment to have their two children.
The Democratic push began earlier this year after the 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 stepped in enact a law to provide legal protection for clinics.
Democrats quickly capitalized, holding a vote in June on Duckworth’s bill and warning that the US Supreme Court could go after the procedure later. announced the right to an abortion in 2022.
The bill would establish a national right for patients to access IVF and other assisted reproductive technologies and a right for doctors and insurance companies to provide them, an effort to forestall state efforts to limit services. It would also require more health insurers to cover and expand coverage for military service members and veterans.
In a statement after the vote, Harris said that Republicans in Congress “have again made it clear that they will not protect access to the fertility treatments that many couples need to realize their dream of having a child.” .
Republican vice presidential candidate and Ohio senator JD Vance, who missed the vote because he was campaigning, said during a stop in Wisconsin that the measure was not a serious IVF bill, but a measure designed to make Republicans look bad.
“The Senate blocked a ridiculous showboat bill that had no chance of passing,” Vance said.
Republicans argued that the federal government should not tell states what to do and that the bill was a frivolous effort. Only Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska voted with Democrats to move forward on the bill both times.
Meanwhile, Republicans have scrambled to counter Democrats on the issue, with many making it clear they support IVF treatments. Trump last month announced plans, without additional details, to ask health insurance companies or the federal government to pay for fertility treatment.
In his debate with Harris earlier this month, Trump said he was a “leader” on the issue and talked about the “very negative” decision by the Alabama court that was later overturned by the legislature .
South Dakota Sen. John Thune, the No. 2 Senate Republican, said Democrats are trying to create a political problem “where there isn’t one.”
“Let me remind everyone that Republicans support IVF, period,” Thune said just before the vote.
The issue threatened to become a vulnerability for Republicans as some state laws passed by their party concession the legal person not only to fetuses, but to any embryos that are destroyed in the IVF process. Before its convention this summer, the Republican Party adopted a political platform which supports states establishing fetal personhood through the 14th amendment to the Constitution, which gives equal protection under the law to all American citizens. The platform also encourages the support of IVF, but does not explain how the party plans to do it.
Republicans have tried to push alternatives to the problem, including legislation that would discourage states from enacting explicit bans on the treatment, but those bills have been blocked by Democrats who say they are not enough.
Senator Rick Scott, a Republican from Florida, said in a speech on the floor then that his daughter was currently receiving IVF treatment and proposed to expand the flexibility of health savings accounts. Republican Sens. Katie Britt of Alabama and Ted Cruz of Texas tried to pass a bill that would threaten to withhold Medicaid funding for states where IVF is prohibited.
Cruz, who is running for re-election in Texas, said Democrats held the vote to “feed baseless fears about IVF and push their broader political agenda.”