Senate Democrats to force a vote on bill to protect IVF access

Sens. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) and Patty Murray (D-Wash.) said Tuesday they will try to force a vote on their legislation to protect access to in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment in response to the Alabama Supreme Court ruling that frozen embryos are considered people, setting up a showdown as they dare Republicans to block the bill. 

At a press conference flanked by her co-sponsors, Duckworth said she will ask for unanimous consent Wednesday for the Senate to pass the bill, which would establish a federal right to IVF and other fertility treatments that are at risk in the post-Roe era.

Duckworth’s two children were conceived through IVF.  

“I warned that red states would come for IVF, and now they have. But they aren’t going to just going to stop in Alabama,” Duckworth said. “Mark my words: If we don’t act now, it will only get worse.” 

The push from Duckworth comes as Democrats vow to make IVF a campaign issue as they continue to squeeze Republicans on the fallout of overturning Roe v. Wade.  

“This didn’t happen in a vacuum. What happened in Alabama, make no mistake about it, is a direct consequence of the hard right MAGA Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y) told reporters Tuesday.  

Duckworth and Murray’s bill was first introduced in 2022 and then reintroduced last month. It would guarantee a right to IVF as it is currently practiced, no matter which state a person lives in. It has no Republican co-sponsors.  

Duckworth tried to call for unanimous consent to pass the bill in 2022, but Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.) blocked it without explanation. Under unanimous consent, any one senator can object to moving the bill forward. 

“If you truly care about the sanctity of families, and you’re genuinely actually honestly interested in protecting IVF, then you need to show it by not blocking this bill on the floor tomorrow. It’s that simple,” Duckworth said. 

The Alabama ruling criminalized the destruction of frozen embryos under Alabama’s Wrongful Death of a Minor Act and led to multiple clinics in the state, including the state’s largest health system, pausing IVF operations for fear of legal repercussions. 

After the ruling, many Republicans raced to distance themselves from it, and the GOP Senate campaign arm called on candidates to reject attempts to regulate access to the procedure.  

But a key practice in modern IVF treatments is to fertilize multiple embryos at once while only implanting one, and it is routine practice to discard nonviable or excess embryos. 

And many of the same Republicans have co-sponsored legislation that declares life begins at conception, without any exclusion for IVF. If enacted, the legislation would likely upend how IVF is practiced.  

The struggle among conservative lawmakers to respond highlights some of the real-world consequences of the “personhood” push. Some GOP politicians have struggled to explain why they may disagree with the ruling — even as they say they believe embryos are babies — or how they would protect IVF clinics from the financial or legal risks of the ruling.

Duckworth said three of the five embryos that were created during her treatments were deemed nonviable. Under “personhood” laws, discarding those embryos could be considered manslaughter or murder. 

“It’s been incredible to watch Republicans now scramble over the weekend to suddenly support IVF, while many of these same Republicans are literally right now co-sponsors of legislation that would enshrine fetal personhood,” Murray said. “You cannot support IVF and support fetal personhood laws. They are fundamentally incompatible. You are not fooling anyone.” 

Passing the legislation under regular Senate rules could take weeks, and Murray, who leads the Senate Appropriations Committee, said Congress doesn’t have that kind of time. Government funding expires March 8, and congressional leaders have yet to reach a deal on how to move forward. 

“There is no reason to take hours on end, days on end to pass this legislation. And that’s what it would take, because we know the same people who are going to block a [unanimous consent] are going to use every procedural move” to drag out the process, Murray said. 

“If Republicans are now saying that they support IVF, don’t block it tomorrow. Let it pass,” Murray said, noting the Senate can move quickly on unanimous consent bills if there is an “urgent crisis.”  

Duckworth said she has not heard from her Republican colleagues on whether they would object to the bill. But if they do, Duckworth said she would “love” to have a roll call vote and put Republicans on the record.  

“I expect them to, if they live up to the words that they’re saying, to not block it. But we’ll see tomorrow when the rubber hits the road,” Duckworth said. 

Updated at 3:28 p.m.