WASHINGTON — The Senate will vote for the second time this year on legislation that would establish a nationwide right to in vitro fertilization, the latest attempt by Democrats in an election year to force Republicans into a defensive posture on issues surrounding women’s health.
The bill, which the Senate is set to vote on Tuesday, has little chance of passing this Congress, as Republicans blocked it earlier this year. But Democrats hope to use the rematch to put pressure on Republican congressional candidates and 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 The Alabama Supreme Court has ruled that frozen embryos can be considered children under state law. Several clinics in the state suspended IVF treatments until the GOP-led Legislature rushed to to pass a law to provide legal protection to the clinics.
Democrats were quick to capitalize, holding a vote on Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth’s bill in June, warning that the U.S. Supreme Court could continue the process after the ruling. destroyed the right to abortion in 2022The legislation would also increase access to the procedure and reduce costs.
“The hard right has set its sights on a new target,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said on the floor Monday.
All but two Republicans voted against the Democratic legislation, arguing that the federal government should not tell states what to do. They said the bill was a futile effort.
Still, Republicans have worked to counter Democrats on this issue, with many making clear their support for IVF treatments. Trump last month announced plans, without further detail, to require health insurers or the federal government to pay for routine fertility treatments.
In 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” decision, which was later overturned by the legislature.
But the issue threatens to become a sensitive point for Republicans as some state laws passed by their own party legal personality not only for fetuses, but also for embryos destroyed during the IVF process.
Duckworth, a war veteran who used the fertility treatment to have her two children, led the Senate effort to pass the legislation. “How dare you,” she said in remarks to her GOP colleagues after the first vote that blocked the bill.
Republicans have tried to promote alternatives to the problem, including legislation that would prevent states from explicitly banning the treatment. However, these bills have been blocked by Democrats, who say they are not enough.
Republican Senators Katie Britt of Alabama and Ted Cruz of Texas tried to pass a bill in June that would have threatened to cut off Medicaid funding for states where IVF is banned. Senator Rick Scott, a Republican from Florida, said in a speech that his daughter was undergoing IVF at the time and proposed expanding the flexibility of health savings accounts.
Cruz, who is running for re-election in Texas, said it showed that Democrats’ efforts to pass legislation were a “cynical political decision.”