GOP senator blocks bill to protect IVF access

Feb. 28 (UPI) -- Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith of Mississippi blocked the quick passage Wednesday of a bill that would have provided federal protections for access to in vitro fertilization.

"The bill before us today is a vast overreach that is full of poison pills that go way too far," Hyde-Smith said. "Far beyond ensuring legal access to IVF, the act explicitly waives the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and would subject religious and pro-life organizations to crippling lawsuits."

Democrat Sen. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, who introduced the bill, requested it be passed by unanimous consent, which meant any one senator could block it.

"Republicans are still blocking us from protecting access to IVF," Duckworth wrote in a post on X, along with Senate floor footage showing the measure being blocked in December 2022 and again on Wednesday.

Duckworth, who used in vitro fertilization for two of her children, said Tuesday that she was bringing the bill to the Senate floor because of a recent Alabama Supreme Court ruling that qualifies frozen fertilized embryos as children under Alabama law. Duckworth says the ruling threatens access to the procedure.

"After decades of struggling with infertility after my service in Iraq, I was only able to get pregnant through the miracle of IVF. IVF is the reason I get to experience the chaos and the beauty, the stress and the joy that is motherhood," Duckworth said.

Under the Alabama court ruling, Duckworth claims three of her nonviable embryos would have left her with two impossible choices: to implant them and endure miscarriages or to discard them and face possible criminal charges.

"That's the kind of future that we're fighting to prevent -- where frozen embryos have more rights than the women who would carry them."

While Republicans argue IVF protections should remain at the state level amid questions over how clinics should handle un-implanted, viable embryos, Sen. Mike Braun, R-Ind., said, "I haven't talked to any Republican that is not for IVF."

Duckworth said, "All the bill says, is if you want to seek reproductive technology you can, if you want to provide it you can and if you want to cover it as an insurance company you can."

Shortly after Wednesday's blocked vote, the White House called Hyde-Smith's move "outrageous."

"The idea that Senate Republicans would block a vote to protect access to in vitro fertilization -- IVF -- is outrageous," White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement Wednesday.

"Every woman in this country should have the freedom to make the decision to have a child, and about one in five American women struggle with infertility and many rely on IVF," Jean-Pierre added. "This is a basic issue of reproductive freedom."