Noah McCrory
washington — Two Senate Republicans introduced legislation Monday to protect access to in vitro fertilization, known as in vitro fertilization, after a Democrat-led effort to do so failed earlier this year in the upper house.
O accounttitled the IVF Protection Act, it was introduced by Senator Ted Cruz of Texas and Senator Katie Britt of Alabama.
It seeks to safeguard IVF nationwide by prohibiting states from receiving Medicaid funding if they enact an outright ban on the fertility procedure. The bill defines in vitro fertilization as “eggs are collected from the ovaries and fertilized manually by sperm, for later placement inside the uterus.”
It would not force any individual or organization to provide IVF services, nor would it prevent states from implementing health and safety measures at clinics that provide such services.
“In vitro fertilization has given miraculous hope to millions of Americans and given families across the country the gift of children,” Cruz said in a statement Monday.
Britt said in a statement that the procedure is “pro-family” and that the legislation “affirms life and liberty.”
Lawmakers sought to protect fertility treatment after an Alabama Supreme Court decision that frozen embryos are considered children under the law. The Alabama decision could have important implications for the procedure and raises questions about whether frozen embryos that are not transferred to a woman’s uterus will have to be stored indefinitely or whether manslaughter charges could be brought if an embryo does not survive the process.
Several clinics in Alabama stopped IVF treatments following the ruling due to fear of legal repercussions if the treatment failed. Alabama since then enacted a law protecting IVF providers from potential legal liability.
The decision also threatened to become a liability for Republicans as polls have shown that the majority of voters think IVF should be legal.
Democratic Senator Tammy Duckworth of Illinois sought to have her bill, the Law of Access to Family Constructionpassed by unanimous consent in February but was blocked by Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith of Mississippi, who said it was a “massive overreach.”
Duckworth’s bill would have granted individuals the right to in vitro fertilization and other fertility treatments and given health care providers the right to provide that care without fear of being sued. The measure would also have allowed insurers to cover expensive treatments.
Cruz stated in an interview with Bloomberg on Monday that Duckworth’s measure sought “a backdoor to broader abortion legislation” in explaining why it did not have Republican support.
