WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans have blocked for the second time this year a bill that would establish a national right to in vitro fertilizationclaiming the vote was a stunt during election time after Democrats forced a vote on the issue.
The Senate vote was the latest attempt by Democrats to force Republicans onto a defensive stance on women’s health issues and to underscore the policy differences between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump in the presidential race, especially as Trump has called himself “a leader in IVF.”
The 51-44 vote fell short of the 60 votes needed to advance the bill, with only two Republicans voting in favor. Democrats say Republicans who insist on their support for IVF are hypocrites because they won’t support legislation that guarantees that right.
“They say they support IVF — go ahead and vote on it,” said Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth, the bill’s lead sponsor and a veteran who used fertility treatment to have her two children.
The Democratic surge began earlier this year after the The Alabama Supreme Court has ruled that frozen embryos can be considered children under state law. Several clinics in the state have suspended IVF treatments until the GOP-led legislature rushes to enact a law to provide legal protections to clinics.
Democrats quickly took advantage, holding a vote in June on Duckworth’s bill and warning that the U.S. Supreme Court could take action after it. revoked the right to abortion in 2022.
The bill would create a national right for patients to access IVF and other assisted reproductive technologies, as well as a right for doctors and insurance companies to offer them, in an effort to preempt state efforts to limit such services. It would also require more health insurers to cover such services and expand coverage to military members and veterans.
In a statement after the vote, Harris said Republicans in Congress “have once again made 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 Sen. J.D. 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 one designed to make Republicans look bad.
“The Senate blocked a ridiculous, vanity bill that had no chance of passing,” Vance said.
Republicans argued that the federal government should not dictate to states what to do and that the bill was a frivolous initiative. Only Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska voted with Democrats to advance the bill twice.
Republicans, meanwhile, have tried to outsmart Democrats on the issue, with many making clear they support IVF treatments. Last month, Trump announced, without providing further details, his intention to require health insurance companies or the federal government to pay for fertility treatments.
During his debate with Harris earlier this month, Trump said he was a “leader” on the issue and spoke of the Alabama court’s “very negative” ruling, which was later overturned by the legislature.
South Dakota Sen. John Thune, the No. 2 Republican in the Senate, said Democrats were trying to create a political problem “where there is none.”
“Let me remind everyone that Republicans support IVF, period,” Thune said just before the vote.
The issue has threatened to become a vulnerability for Republicans, as some state laws passed by their party grant legal personality not only to fetuses but also to all embryos destroyed in the IVF process. Ahead of its convention this summer, the Republican Party adopted a Political platform The party supports states that recognize fetal personhood under the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, which grants equal protection under the law to all U.S. citizens. The platform also encourages support for IVF, but does not explain how the party plans to do so.
Republicans have tried to propose alternatives on the issue, including legislation that would discourage states from explicitly banning the treatment, but those bills have been blocked by Democrats who say they don’t do enough.
Florida Republican Sen. Rick Scott said in a speech on the floor that his daughter is currently undergoing in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment and proposed expanding the flexibility of health savings accounts. Republican Sens. Katie Britt of Alabama and Ted Cruz of Texas have attempted to pass a bill that would threaten to cut off Medicaid funding for states that ban IVF.
Cruz, who is running for re-election in Texas, said Democrats were organizing the vote to “stir up unfounded fears about IVF and advance their broader policy agenda.”
