A Democrat-backed bill that would expand access to in vitro fertilization (IVF) services and provide a “nationwide right” failed to garner the votes needed to pass a key test vote on Thursday.
The Senate passed the bill 48-47, falling short of the 60 votes needed to move the bill forward. The bill’s failure was not surprising: Republicans were expected to block it, calling it too broad as Democrats seek to expand abortion access and reproductive issues ahead of the 2024 elections.
Only two Republicans voted in favor of the bill: Senators Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine.
The vote came after the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos are legally people and that those who destroy them can be held liable. Alabama Governor Kay Ivey then signed a bill into law in March that protects medical professionals from civil and criminal liability if an embryo is accidentally killed or damaged.
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Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-New York (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
“Protecting IVF should be the easiest vote of any senator this year. All this bill does is establish a nationwide right to IVF and remove barriers for millions of Americans who seek IVF,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Thursday in support of the bill on the Senate floor.
“This is a personal issue for me. Thanks to the miracle of IVF, I have a beautiful one-year-old grandson, so in a perfect world, we wouldn’t need a bill like this. But in the wake of the Alabama Supreme Court debacle and the generally MAGA views of some on that court, Americans are genuinely worried that IVF will become the next target of anti-choice extremists.”
Schumer was notable for switching his vote from yes to no on Thursday, which will allow him to reconsider the bill more quickly in the future.
The bill, introduced by Democratic Senators Tammy Duckworth of Illinois and Cory Booker of New Jersey, included measures such as a legal right to access reproductive health services like IVF, which would have lowered the cost of IVF treatment.
Republican Sens. Ted Cruz and Katie Britt issued a statement early Thursday reaffirming their support for access to IVF across the country, but slammed the bill as a “scare tactic.”
“Senate Democrats have employed a summer of scare tactics, a partisan campaign of false fear-mongering aimed at deceiving and confusing the American people. IVF is legal and available in every state across the country, and we strongly support continued nationwide access to IVF, which has enabled millions of aspiring parents to start and grow their families,” they wrote.
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Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
Britt and Cruz introduced their own bill on Wednesday that would prevent states from receiving Medicaid funding if they banned IVF treatments, and Democrats blocked their efforts to pass the bill through a unanimous consent request, arguing that the bill fails to broadly protect access to IVF services.
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Tammy Duckworth, Democratic U.S. Senator from Illinois (Getty Images)
Ahead of the vote, pro-life groups including Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America denounced the bill’s broad language as consolidating “four extreme bills that take an ‘anything goes’ approach to fertility treatment.”
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“This bill solves a problem where fertility treatments are widely available but there is no serious effort to curtail compassionate care for those struggling with infertility. This is a sweeping bill that protects the industry without protecting parents or their embryos. This bill allows for embryo genetic testing, selective reduction abortion and even human cloning. Instead of serious legislation that balances complex issues, this is laissez-faire for the fertility industry. This bill will funnel even more money to their multi-billion dollar business and leave taxpayers footing the bill,” Marjorie Dannenfelser, executive director of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life USA, said in a statement.
Fox News Digital’s Julia Johnson and Elizabeth Pritchett contributed to this report.
