June 13, 2024

On the Senate Floor, Duckworth Calls out Republican Hypocrisy and Urges Passage of Her Right to IVF Act

 

[WASHINGTON, D.C.] – Today, U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), spoke on the Senate floor to underscore the importance of passing her pro-family, pro-freedom Right to IVF Act to protect and strengthen IVF for all Americans. During her remarks, Duckworth shared her own experience with IVF to grow her family while calling out Republicans’ continued failure to support IVF despite claiming they do. Video of the Senator’s remarks is available on YouTube.

Key Quotes:

  • “Look, I was actually stationed in Alabama for a little while, back when I was in the Army. And I didn’t know it at the time, but infertility would become one of the most heartbreaking struggles of my life… my miscarriage more painful than any wound I ever earned on the battlefield. It is only thanks to IVF that I get to be embarrassingly proud when I hang my six-year-old’s drawings on my Senate office walls…”
  • “You know, right after the ruling came out, I came to this very spot and begged my GOP colleagues to help me pass my bill that would set the simple standard that no doctor or hopeful parent could be criminalized for IVF. Republicans blocked it. This was after days and days of the GOP claiming to support IVF. Of claiming to support reproductive health. Of claiming that they actually gave a damn about the women in this country. Naturally, that was all untrue… all a ruse to mislead voters.”
  • “It comes down to this: Every woman deserves to be able to be called ‘mama’ without also being called a criminal. That’s why, today, I’m trying once again to pass legislation that would enshrine into law every American’s right to IVF—now called the Right to IVF Act. If Republicans actually care more about protecting women’s health more than they do about getting invitations to Mar-a-Lago, then all they have to do to show it is help me move my bill forward.”

Remarks as prepared are below:

Elissa Smith was living in Alabama when she heard the news this past February.

She’d been pregnant a few years earlier. But it had left her with scars, both emotionally and physically.

She had been in her third trimester with her first child when she’d learned that she had cancer.

She gave birth early to a beautiful baby girl. Then soon after, she underwent surgery… chemotherapy… you name it—a care plan that helped get rid of the disease, but that also left her unable to conceive again.

Thankfully, she had undergone one round of IVF before her treatment.

Fast forward to early 2024. Things were finally getting brighter. She and her husband had just begun to research surrogates to carry her viable embryos.

Then a gavel sounded out of her state courthouse, marking the ruling that changed their—and so many other families’—lives.

On February 16th, the Alabama Supreme Court declared that frozen extrauterine embryos created through IVF should be considered children under state law…

A ruling that painted would-be moms and their doctors as criminals…

And one that uprooted the dreams and began the nightmares of aspiring parents, as IVF clinics statewide soon paused treatments out of fear that their doctors and patients could be punished for trying to start families.

Elissa was one of these women.

Now it seemed like her desperately-hoped-for wish of growing her family was snatched away by an extremist Court that either had no idea or simply didn’t care about everything that had gone into trying to turn her dreams into reality.

Elissa’s story is exceptional. But it’s not the exception.

For so many women, that lifelong hope of having children is now stuck in a hellish limbo, as they remain uncertain whether more states will follow Alabama’s lead…

As they’re forced to live in fear that Republican success come November would even further imperil their right to try to create a family…

As they remain unsure whether living in a red state under a Trump presidency could mean getting jail time for committing the supposed sin of needing modern medicine to bring into the world a baby to nuzzle and swaddle and love.

Look, I was actually stationed in Alabama for a little while, back when I was in the Army.

And I didn’t know it at the time, but infertility would become one of the most heartbreaking struggles of my life… my miscarriage more painful than any wound I ever earned on the battlefield.

It is only thanks to IVF that I get to be embarrassingly proud when I hang my six-year-old’s drawings on my Senate office walls…

Or that I get to be tackled in bed every Mother’s Day by my nine-year-old, who runs into my room bearing the biggest of hugs and the sweetest of cards.

So excuse me if I find it a bit offensive when a bunch of politicians who’ve never spent a day in med school hint that those of us who’ve needed the help of IVF to become moms should be sitting behind bars rather than lulling our babies to sleep in rocking chairs.

My apologies if I take it personally when the same folks who rely on NRA blood money to get elected suggest that women like me are committing acts akin to murder when all we’re trying to do is create life and not have to suffer through more miscarriages.

You know, right after the ruling came out, I came to this very spot and begged my GOP colleagues to help me pass my bill that would set the simple standard that no doctor or hopeful parent could be criminalized for IVF.

Republicans blocked it.

This was after days and days of the GOP claiming to support IVF.

Of claiming to support reproductive health.

Of claiming that they actually gave a damn about the women in this country.

Naturally, that was all a lie… all a ruse to mislead voters.

At this point it’s obvious: The only thing they care about is kissing up to Trial Room Trump and bowing down to the most extreme wing of their party.

Things like common decency or common sense don’t even register to them anymore.

It comes down to this: Every woman deserves to be able to be called “mama” without also being called a criminal.

That’s why, today, I’m trying once again to pass legislation that would enshrine into law every American’s right to IVF—now called the Right to IVF Act.

If Republicans actually care more about protecting women’s health more than they do about getting invitations to Mar-a-Lago, then all they have to do to show it is help me move my bill forward.

Because, look, struggling with infertility is hard.

Using all your savings to go through round after round of IVF is hard.

This vote? Well, that’s one thing that’s actually really simple.

-30-