WASHINGTON — The Senate will vote for the second time this year on legislation that would establish a national right to in vitro fertilization — the latest election-year effort by Democrats to force Republicans into a defensive stance on health issues. of women.
The bill, which the Senate will vote on Tuesday, has little chance of passing this Congress, since Republicans already blocked the same bill earlier this year. But Democrats hope to use the canceled vote to put pressure on Republican congressional candidates and set up a contrast between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump in the presidential race, especially since Trump calls himself a ” leader in IVF. “
The push began earlier this year The Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos can be considered children under state law. Several clinics in the state suspended IVF treatments until the GOP-led legislature stepped in enact a law to provide legal protection for clinics.
Democrats quickly capitalized, holding a vote in June on Illinois Senator Tammy Duckworth’s bill and warning that the US Supreme Court could go after the procedure later. announced the right to an abortion in 2022. The legislation would also increase access to the procedure and reduce costs.
“The hard right has set a new target,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said on the floor Monday.
All but two Republicans voted against the Democratic legislation, arguing that the federal government should not tell states what to do. They said the project was a frivolous endeavor.
However, Republicans have struggled to counter Democrats on the issue, with many making it clear they support IVF treatments. Trump last month announced plans, without additional details, to ask health insurance companies or the federal government to pay for common fertility treatment.
In his debate with Harris earlier this month, Trump said he was a “leader” on the issue and talked about the “very negative” decision by the Alabama court that was later overturned by the legislature .
But the issue threatened to become a vulnerability for Republicans as some state laws passed by their own party conceded. the legal person not only to fetuses, but to any embryos that are destroyed in the IVF process.
Duckworth, a military veteran who has use fertility treatment to have her two children, she led the Senate effort on the legislation. “How dare you,” he said in comments directed at his GOP colleagues after the first vote that blocked the bill.
Republicans have tried to push alternatives on the issue, including legislation that would discourage states from enacting explicit bans on the treatment, but those bills have been blocked by Democrats who say it’s not enough.
Republican Sen. Katie Britt of Alabama and Ted Cruz of Texas tried in June to pass a bill that threatened to withhold Medicaid funding for states where IVF is prohibited. Senator Rick Scott, a Republican from Florida, said in a speech on the floor then that his daughter was currently receiving IVF treatment and proposed to expand the flexibility of health savings accounts.
Cruz, who is running for re-election in Texas, said Democrats’ efforts to pass the legislation were a “cynical political decision.”