WASHINGTON — For the second time in four months, Senate Democrats have forced a vote on an IVF rights bill, but Republicans have blocked it as unnecessary and politically motivated as Vice President Kamala Harris seeks to make access to IVF a 2024 election issue.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., forced the vote on Tuesday after Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, who described himself as a “leader in fertility and IVF” during a recent debate with Harris, floated a vague plan to require insurance companies and the government to cover the costs of the treatment.
The vote was 51-44, falling short of the 60 votes needed to break a filibuster. Republican Senators Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine again voted with the Democrats in favor of the bill. All other Republican senators present voted against it.
The bill would establish broad protections and a nationwide right for individuals to receive in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment and allow health care providers to provide these services without restriction or interference.
“Donald Trump’s abortion ban means couples who pray and dream about starting a family are being denied IVF treatment,” Democratic candidate Harris said during a recent ABC debate.
Trump fired back, expressing his support for IVF and pointing out that the state legislature had overturned a “deeply negative” Alabama Supreme Court ruling that threatened access to the treatment.
Senate Minority Whip John Thune, CPA, dismissed it as “another sham vote” and asserted that “Republicans fully support IVF.”
“This is not an attempt to make law. This is not an attempt to get results or get legislation,” Thune said. “This is simply an attempt by Democrats to make a political issue where there isn’t one.”
“Every woman in every state should have reproductive freedom, but Republicans in Congress have once again made it clear they will not protect access to the fertility treatments that so many couples need to fulfill their dreams of having children,” Harris said in a statement after the bill was defeated on Tuesday.
The bill’s author, Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), said she was concerned that some states would pass laws “defining a fertilized egg as a person,” as the Alabama Supreme Court has done, “and thus impede the practice of in vitro fertilization.”
Once the bill is passed, Duckworth told NBC News that the path to passing the bill is for Democrats to win a majority in the 2024 elections and bring the bill back to the floor. She predicted Democrats would “lift the filibuster” to avoid the 60-vote requirement that would require 50 senators to vote to change the rules.
“I think it’s really important for families across the country to be able to have a family when they want to,” Duckworth said.
Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio, who did not vote on Tuesday because he was campaigning, accused Schumer of playing “political games.”
“President Trump and Senator Vance have been clear in their full support of ensuring access to IVF for all American families,” said Taylor Van Kirk, a spokesman for Senator Vance.
Republicans have introduced a more limited bill, authored by Sens. Katie Britt (R-Ala.) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas), that would cut off Medicaid funding if a state banned IVF. Democrats argue the bill has loopholes.