June 13, 2024

Duckworth, Murray, Booker Call Out Republican Hypocrisy After Senate GOP Block Their Bill to Protect IVF and Lower Costs for Families, Despite Republicans Saying They Support IVF

This is the third time Senate Republicans blocked Duckworth-led legislation to protect IVF access nationwide

 

[WASHINGTON, D.C.] – Today, U.S. Senators Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Patty Murray (D-WA) and Cory Booker (D-NJ) called out Senate Republicans’ hypocrisy after nearly every single Republican blocked the Senate Democrats’ Right to IVF Act, despite them publicly claiming to support IVF for the millions of Americans who rely on it to build their family. A little more than 10 days away from the second-anniversary of the Supreme Court’s disastrous Dobbs decision that put IVF at risk, Senate Democrats pushed to pass this pro-family, pro-freedom legislative package that would both establish a right to IVF and other assisted reproductive technology (ART), expand access for hopeful parents, Veterans and federal employees as well as lower the costs of IVF treatment for middle class families. In her remarks on the Senate floor ahead of the vote, Duckworth slammed Republicans for blocking her previous legislation to protect IVF access after the Alabama Supreme Court ruling shut down state clinics and painted IVF parents and their doctors as criminals—proving that their public “support for IVF” was a ruse to mislead voters. Senator Duckworth’s remarks can be found on YouTube.

“As very real threats against IVF continue to grow, Republicans today had yet another chance to prove their so-called ‘support for IVF’ by helping us pass our legislation that would protect IVF access and lower fertility care costs nationwide—and nearly every single Republican voted against it,” said Senator Duckworth. “Despite literally campaigning on the fact that they support IVF, this marks the third time Republicans have blocked legislation I’ve led to protect IVF—making it clear that the only thing Republicans do care about is misleading voters and bowing down to the most extreme wing of their party. Today, Republicans once again turned their backs on families, Veterans and the majority of Americans who support access to IVF. And we won’t forget it.”

“Republicans just voted against IVF for all the world to see, on the record. So let’s put to rest, once and for all, the idea Republicans actually care about protecting IVF access. And while we are at it—let’s put to rest this utter fiction that their bill does anything to support IVF. The issue with Republicans’ bill isn’t that it doesn’t do enough to protect IVF, it is that their bill does nothing to meaningfully protect IVF from the very real threats from lawmakers and anti-abortion extremists in their party all over this country. Their bill would allow states to regulate IVF out of existence!” said Senator Murray. “Republicans will keep trying to cry ‘fearmonger’ but it’s hard to hide a fire when everyone can see the flames. We saw what happened in Alabama, the chaos that caused. We saw what happened yesterday in Indianapolis, a prominent conservative group voting to fully, explicitly oppose IVF—and we saw how Republicans voted today. Everyone in America knows the threat to IVF is real, and it is not going away just because it’s inconvenient for Republicans. And Democrats are not going away either—we are going to keep fighting to protect IVF, make sure everyone can access this medical care, and make sure no politician can stand in the way.”

“I am profoundly disappointed that Senate Republicans have voted today to deny countless families the opportunity and the right to make their own deeply personal decisions about starting a family,” said Senator Booker. “I will never stop fighting for the fundamental freedoms of all Americans, and I will continue to advocate for comprehensive reproductive health care that is affordable and accessible to everyone in this country. No family should have to endure hardship to realize their dream of having children. This fight is far from over.”

Ahead of today’s vote on their Right to IVF Act, Senators Duckworth and Murray released the following fact sheet that outlines the very real and growing threat Republican lawmakers in Congress and across the country are posing to IVF and other ART. Yesterday, Duckworth, Murray and Booker joined IVF patients, providers and advocates in coordination with RESOLVE and the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) for a press conference to underscore the urgent need to pass the Right to IVF Act as Republicans continue their anti-choice, anti-science crusade.

Building on the lawmakers’ previous efforts to protect and strengthen access to IVF, the Right to IVF Act includes updated and enhanced versions of:

  • Senator Duckworth’s Access to Family Building Act, which would establish a nationwide right for patients to access IVF and other ART services, a right for doctors to provide IVF treatment in accordance with medical standards as well as a right for insurance carriers to cover IVF without prohibition, limitation, interference or impediment. By establishing a statutory right, this would pre-empt any state effort to limit such access and ensuring no hopeful parent—or their doctors—are punished for trying to start or grow a family.
    • In February, Senator Duckworth sought unanimous consent to pass this legislation and Republican U.S. Senator of Mississippi Cindy Hyde-Smith blocked it.
  • Senator Murray’s Veteran Families Health Services Act, which would expand the fertility treatments and family-building services that are covered under servicemembers’ and Veterans’ health care to include—among other things—the option for individuals to cryopreserve their gametes (freeze their eggs or sperm) ahead of deployment to a combat zone and in vitro fertilization (IVF) for servicemembers and veterans who are unable to conceive without assistance.
    • In March, Senator Murray sought unanimous consent to pass this legislation and Republican U.S. Senator of Oklahoma James Lankford blocked it.
  • Senator Booker’s Access to Infertility Treatment and Care Act, which would increase affordability of fertility care—including IVF—by requiring employer-sponsored insurance plans and other public insurance plans to cover fertility treatments. Additionally, it would standardize a baseline of high-quality fertility treatment coverage under private health insurance plans, while protecting Americans against excessive out-of-pocket costs.
  • Senator Duckworth’s Family Building FEHB Fairness Act, which would require Federal Employees Health Benefit (FEHB) Program—the largest employer-sponsored health insurance plan in the world—carriers to cover IVF and ART to help more hardworking Americans start and grow their families.

Throughout her time in the Senate, Duckworth has made protecting reproductive freedom and expanding access to IVF top priorities in the face of Republicans’ anti-choice crusade. When Senator Hyde-Smith blocked Senator Duckworth’s Access to Family Building Act from passing through unanimous consent, this was the second time Senate Republicans blocked Duckworth-led legislation that would protect access to IVF nationwide. The Access to Family Building Act builds on previous legislation she introduced in 2022.

Meanwhile, while Senate Democrats continue their efforts to protect IVF and reproductive freedom, Senate Republicans continue to make it clear that they want to further undermine access to basic healthcare for millions of Americans. Duckworth condemned the so-called “IVF Protection” bill led by U.S. Senators Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Katie Britt (R-AL) that wouldn’t do anything to protect IVF, but actually incentivize state legislatures to both ban IVF and defund Medicaid at the same time—unpopular, extreme policies that far-right Republican policymakers have sought to do for decades.

Duckworth and Murray also joined their Senate Democratic women colleagues in excoriating new legislation introduced by Senate Republicans that would create a new government-run website to collect data on pregnant women and direct them to anti-abortion crisis pregnancy centers and other “resources” to pressure women into carrying pregnancies to term, no matter their circumstances.

Duckworth was the first Senator to give birth while serving in office and had both of her children with the help of IVF. In 2018, she advocated for the Senate to change its rules so she could bring her infant onto the Senate floor.

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