A Democrat-backed bill that would have expanded access to and provide a “nationwide right” to in vitro fertilization (IVF) services failed to garner enough votes to get past a key test vote on Thursday.
The Senate voted 48 to 47, falling short of the necessary 60 votes needed to move forward. The package’s failure came as no surprise, as Republicans were anticipated to block the legislation and said the bill was too broad as Democrats work to amplify abortion access and reproductive issues ahead of the 2024 election.
Republicans Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine were the only two GOP lawmakers to vote in favor of the bill.
The vote comes after the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos are legally people and ruled that those who destroy them are liable. Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey subsequently signed legislation into law in March that protects medical professionals from civil and criminal immunity in case of unintentional death or damage to an embryo.
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Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
“Protecting IVF should be the easiest yes vote senators have taken all year. All this bill does is establish a nationwide right to IVF and eliminate barriers for millions of Americans who seek IVF,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said on the Senate floor in support of the legislation Thursday.
“It’s personal to me. I have a beautiful one-year-old grandson because of the miracle of IVF. And so, in a perfect world, a bill like this would not be necessary. But after the fiasco of the Alabama Supreme Court decision and the generally MAGA views of some on the Supreme Court, Americans are genuinely worried that IVF is the next target of anti-choice extremists.”
Schumer notably changed his vote from yay to nay on Thursday, which will allow him to readdress the bill sooner in the future.
The bill was introduced by Democratic Sens. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois and Cory Booker of New Jersey. It included measures such as a statutory right to access to reproductive services such as IVF and would have lowered costs for IVF treatments.
Republican Sens. Ted Cruz and Katie Britt released a statement earlier Thursday reaffirming their support of IVF access across the nation, but they slammed the legislation as “scare tactics.”
“Senate Democrats have embraced a Summer of Scare Tactics—a partisan campaign of…
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