June 13, 2024

Duckworth to GOP after IVF Vote: I Wish You Luck Trying to Excuse Your Vote to Your Constituents

 

[WASHINGTON, D.C.] – After nearly every single Republican voted against her Right to IVF Act despite publicly claiming to support IVF, U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) delivered impassioned remarks calling out Republicans’ hypocrisy and cruelty as millions of Americans continue to be rightfully worried about accessing the IVF treatment and other assisted reproductive technology (ART) that they rely on to build their family. By blocking her pro-family, pro-freedom Right to IVF Act that would establish a right to IVF and other ART, expand access for hopeful parents, Veterans and federal employees as well as lower the costs of fertility care for working families, Republicans once again proved that their public “support for IVF” is merely a ruse to mislead Americans. A video of the Senator’s remarks is available on YouTube.

Key Quotes:

  • “For months now, Republicans have been running to cable news shows, telling every camera in sight that—just like their ringmaster Donald Trump—no one cares more about women more than they do! That no one cares more about defending our rights than they do! And that all they want in this scary post-Alabama ruling reality is to defend Americans’ access to IVF. Well, that’s bullshit.”
  • “When someone shows you who they are the first time, believe it. That’s how the saying goes. Well, Republicans have showed us who they are one, two, three, four thousand times. When the rubber meets the road, and we ask not just for empty words on Twitter but for their vote to protect IVF, they just don’t have it in them to even pretend to care about the women in this country.”
  • “…I wish you luck as you try to excuse this vote to every one of your constituents back home who are facing the heart-wrenching struggle of trying to have their own little girl or boy to swaddle and cuddle and love—and are terrified that you might have just snatched their dreams of a family away from them. Shame on you.”

Remarks as delivered are below:

I don’t have it in me to beat around the bush today.

I’m angry. I’m really, really angry.

For months now, Republicans have been running to cable news shows, telling every camera in sight that—just like their ringmaster Donald Trump—no one cares more about women more than they do!

That no one cares more about defending our rights than they do!

And that all they want in this scary post-Alabama ruling reality is to defend Americans’ access to IVF.

Well, that’s bullshit.

Just minutes ago, the GOP refused to help me pass my Right to IVF Act, which would have enshrined into law the simple standard that no hopeful parent or doctor can be criminalized for IVF.

If Republicans ACTUALLY cared as much about protecting IVF as they do about protecting Donald Trump’s poll numbers, this would have been a simple yes vote.

If they ACTUALLY wanted to find real solutions to this living nightmare that countless Americans are facing, they would have joined me in passing this obvious, obviously good piece of legislation.

And they’d stop trying to pass sham, scammy bills that aim to mislead voters…

Bills that are more like worthless fire insurance policies written by the arsonists who fanned the flames in the first place than they are real legislative solutions.

When someone shows you who they are the first time, believe it. That’s how the saying goes.

Well, Republicans have showed us who they are one, two, three, four thousand times.

When the rubber meets the road, and we ask not just for empty words on Twitter but for their vote to protect IVF, they just don’t have it in them to even pretend to care about the women in this country.

As a mom who struggled with infertility for years… as a parent who needed IVF to have my two beautiful little girls… all I can say to my Republican colleagues in this moment is how dare you…

And I wish you luck as you try to excuse this vote to every one of your constituents back home who are facing the heart-wrenching struggle of trying to have their own little girl or boy to swaddle and cuddle and love—and are terrified that you might have just snatched their dreams of a family away from them.

Shame on you.

-30-