For the second time, the U.S. Senate on Tuesday failed to advance a bill to enshrine protections for in-vitro fertilization [IVF].
Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois proposed the measure that the Senate blocked in June. The measure failed to reach 60 votes again on Tuesday in a mostly party-line vote. It was not expected to pass.
Duckworth used the fertility treatment to have her two children. She's concerned that a conservative U.S. Supreme Court that struck down Roe v. Wade could one day strip access to IVF.
Speaking with reporters moments after she cast her vote, Duckworth called out Republicans and specifically former President Donald Trump for — she says— putting women's rights at risk.
Duckworth said she doesn’t buy Trump’s claim that he will be a “leader on IVF.”
“Despite the incoherent, delusional and frankly embarrassing ramblings that came out of his mouth last week, the reality is that he is the reason that IVF is at risk in the first place,” said Duckworth, making an apparent reference to Trump’s recent presidential debate performance against Vice President Kamala Harris.
Trump has said, if elected, he would require private insurers of the government to pay for IVF.
Republicans largely dismissed Duckworth’s bill as a political stunt and say they aren't trying to take away fertility rights. The GOP has produced its own proposal intended to discourage states from passing IVF restrictions, but Democrats have said it doesn’t go far enough.
Duckworth said she hopes Republicans pay a political price.
“I think they will because a majority of Americans support this. I think a majority of Americans think that people should be able to start their families using assisted reproductive technologies if they want to.”
Duckworth's bill gained steam among Democrats after the Alabama Supreme Court ruled earlier this year that embryos are children.
