IVF Bill Fails After Republicans Block It, Despite Trump Support

Photo: Reuters/Anna Rose Layden

WASHINGTON, DC (REUTERS) – A US Senate bill aimed at enshrining federal protections and expanding insurance coverage for fertility treatments failed on September 17, as Republicans voted against it days after Donald Trump surprised supporters by voicing support for such a policy.

The bill failed 51-44, falling short of the required 60-vote threshold after most Republicans voted against it for the second time. Democrats control the chamber by a slim 51-49 margin.

The bill’s sponsor, Democratic Senator Tammy Duckworth, first attempted to get a vote on the same bill in late February, after the Alabama Supreme Court ruled the embryos used in in vitro fertilization, or IVF, should be considered children, jeopardizing access to the treatment used by millions of Americans every year.

“The freedom to get reproductive care is at risk for millions of other women whose most desperate hope in the world is to have a little one of their own,” Duckworth, who had her two daughters via fertility treatments, said in a Senate floor speech after Tuesday’s vote. “Republicans only seem to care about protecting life when it supposedly consists of some cells in a medical lab freezer.”