CONNECTICUT, USA — The U.S. Senate is expected to vote on a bill to protect access to IVF Tuesday, the same measure Republicans blocked just months ago.
“It is about families, it's about individual choices and about privacy,” U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) said. “They're gonna be given the opportunity to go on record whether they favor a family's right to try to have Children.”
Republicans blocked the legislation back in June, but after comments from the former president — and current presidential nominee — Donald Trump, Senate Democrats want to force their colleagues across the aisle to go on record.
“I challenge them to do the right thing for the sake of their own families,” Blumenthal said.
The Right to IVF Act is made up of four bills, meant to ensure IVF access nationwide and make the procedure more affordable.
“The right to the IVF Act really comes out of the Alabama Supreme Court's really shocking decision earlier this year to call embryos extra uterine Children, essentially banning IVF in Alabama and then creating fetal personhood and then throwing the provision of IVF and all assisted reproductive health services into disarray,” Rebecca Hart Holder, president of Reproductive Equity Now, explained.
She said her family benefited from IVF, using the procedure to have her two children.
“It's all about who gets to start a family and when you get to start a family,” she added. “It is just an extraordinary gift that we can give to families and I hope that um all of the senators um whatever party they're on will take seriously the fact that people deserve to be able to have the families they want and if that requires medical intervention, they should be supported.”
When asked about Trump’s recent comments saying he supports IVF and even wants to make the procedure free for Americans, Blumenthal said, “When he says he's for IVF, but at the same time, he's agreeing with groups that are against women's reproductive health rights. It's impossible to know what he really supports.”
Hart Holder continued, “He should direct the Republican caucus to vote in favor of the Right to IVF Bill that's coming up in the Senate this week. It's really that simple, if he is a man of his word, then they should take the vote in support. He's trying to say one thing publicly and then do a different thing policy-wise behind closed doors.”
Like the previous legislation brought up in June, this bill does face steep odds in the Senate — just two Republicans voted in favor last time.
Blumenthal said he’s hearing most Republicans are planning to vote against the measure again.
Emma Wulfhorst is a political reporter for FOX61 News. She can be reached at ewulfhorst@fox61.com. Follow her on Facebook, X and Instagram.
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