Republican Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Katie Britt of Alabama introduced legislation Monday that would protect access to in vitro fertilization, just months after an Alabama Supreme Court made a ruling that would have put the future of IVF at risk.
The IVF Protection Act would ensure that states do not prohibit access to the fertility treatment by threatening states’ eligibility for Medicaid funding if they create an outright ban.
The Alabama court ruled earlier this year that frozen embryos created through IVF are considered children, paving the way for wrongful death lawsuits and potentially more.
The ruling shocked lawmakers and medical professionals alike. Fear of prosecution led many clinics to put on hold the fertility treatments.
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey signed a bill in March to protect the legality of IVF in the state, and the two senators want to make such protections a matter of federal law.
“As Republican senators from Texas and Alabama, @SenKatieBritt and I are united on many issues, including the need to protect both life and access to IVF treatments, which many families rely on to have children,” Mr. Cruz wrote on X on Sunday before introducing the bill. “This issue is close to our hearts as parents.”
Mr. Cruz and Ms. Britt first announced their new bill in an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal Sunday, called “We’ll Protect Both Life and IVF.”
“While the Alabama Legislature after the court’s decision promptly reiterated that IVF is protected, federal legislation would eliminate any ambiguity that might arise from future state-level judicial interpretations. Our goal is to make sure that any family’s path to bringing a child into the world isn’t compromised by preventable legal confusion,” the two wrote in the op-ed.
“Our bill doesn’t impede states from setting up health and safety standards to govern IVF, nor does it compel any individual or organization to provide IVF against its wishes or beliefs. It simply ensures that access to IVF is fully protected by federal law, as there is currently no such federal law in place,” they wrote.
When the initial Alabama ruling was announced, Democrats pounced on the chance to warn that other states could follow suit because of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 overturn of Roe v. Wade’s federal abortion right.
Republicans, despite their decades as the pro-life party, also jumped to defend IVF, with former President Donald Trump among those saying the fertility treatment should be protected.
However, Senate Republicans blocked legislation introduced by Sen. Tammy Duckworth, Illinois Democrat, for the second time in late February that aimed to protect IVF and other fertility treatment.
Speaking to Bloomberg news agency on Monday, Mr. Cruz said he didn’t support Ms. Duckworth’s bill because it was “a very different bill [because it sought] to backdoor-in broader abortion legislation.”
Under the Republican duo’s bill, no individual or organization is compelled to provide IVF treatment. It also doesn’t stop states from “implementing healthy and safety standards regarding the practice of in vitro fertilization.”
“This commonsense piece of legislation affirms both life and liberty — family and freedom, and I look forward to working with my colleagues to enact it into law,” Ms. Britt said in a statement Monday.
• Mallory Wilson can be reached at mwilson@washingtontimes.com.
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