Senate votes again on IVF protection in election year

WASHINGTON (AP) – The Senate will vote for the second time this year on legislation that would establish a nationwide right to assisted reproduction, as Democrats seek to put Republicans on the defensive on women's health issues in an election year.

The bill, which the Senate will vote on Tuesday, has little chance of passing Congress, as Republicans blocked the same bill earlier this year. But Democrats hope to use the second vote to put pressure on Republican congressional candidates and to draw a contrast between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump in the presidential race, especially since Trump has called himself a “leader in IVF.”

The push began earlier this year after the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos could be considered children under state law. Several clinics in the state suspended IVF treatments until the Republican-led legislature hastily passed a law giving the clinics legal protection.

Democrats were quick to take advantage, putting Illinois Senator Tammy Duckworth's bill to a vote in June, warning that the U.S. Supreme Court could next take action against the procedure after striking down abortion rights in 2022. The bill would also improve access to the procedure and reduce costs.

“The far right has set its sights on a new target,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., said on Monday in the plenary session.

With two exceptions, all Republicans voted against the Democrats' bill. They argued that the federal government should not tell the states what to do. They described the bill as dubious.

Still, Republicans are trying to counter Democrats on the issue, many of whom have made clear they support IVF treatments. Trump announced plans last month, without providing further details, to have health insurance companies or the federal government cover the cost of the common fertility treatment.

In his debate with Harris earlier this month, Trump called himself a “trailblazer” on the issue and spoke of the court's “very negative” decision in Alabama, which was later overturned by Congress.

But the issue threatens to become a weak point for Republicans, as some state-level laws passed by their party grant legal personality not only to fetuses but also to all embryos destroyed during artificial insemination.

Duckworth, a military veteran who underwent fertility treatment to have her two children, led the Senate effort on the legislation. “How dare you,” she said in comments to her Republican colleagues after the first vote to block the bill.

Republicans have tried to push alternatives to the issue, including legislation that would prevent states from passing explicit bans on this treatment, but those bills have been blocked by Democrats who believe it is not enough.

Republican Senators Katie Britt of Alabama and Ted Cruz of Texas tried to pass a bill in June that threatened to cut off Medicaid funding for states that banned IVF. Senator Rick Scott, a Republican from Florida, said in a floor speech at the time that his daughter was currently receiving IVF treatment and suggested expanding the flexibility of health savings accounts.

Cruz, who is running for re-election in Texas, said it shows that Democrats' efforts to pass legislation were a “cynical political decision.”

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