In response to reporting that MAGA Republicans are doubling down in their extreme agenda to threaten IVF access, DNC spokesperson Aida Ross released the following statement: 

“The top architects of the GOP’s Project 2025 blueprint for Donald Trump have their sights set on ripping away IVF access from families across the country. Anti-choice extremists are now saying the quiet part out loud after Trump’s MAGA minions in Congress blocked even the most basic protections for IVF and supported an abortion ban that would threaten access to these treatments for millions. They’re making it clear that their goal is to make it harder for Americans to start or grow their families – but voters will reject their dangerous, anti-choice extremism in November.”

Extreme anti-choice groups that are part of Project 2025 are pushing Republicans to gut access to IVF — and Republicans are falling in line.

Politico: “Anti-abortion advocates worked for five decades to topple Roe v. Wade. They’re now laying the groundwork for a yearslong fight to curb in vitro fertilization.

“Since the Alabama Supreme Court ruled last month that frozen embryos are children, the Heritage Foundation and other conservative groups have been strategizing how to convince not just GOP officials but evangelicals broadly that they should have serious moral concerns about fertility treatments like IVF and that access to them should be curtailed.

“In short, they want to re-run the Roe playbook.

“They plan to appeal to evangelical denominations and their leaders to take a firm stance that IVF as practiced in the U.S. destroys human life. That, they hope, will reshape how conservative Christians — and in turn, the officials they elect — view the issue, just as it did on abortion. Ultimately, it could lead to laws that create a patchwork of IVF access in the United States, where the procedure is more accessible in liberal states and more limited in conservative ones.”

“The groups are not advocating banning IVF but want new restrictions that would significantly curtail access to the procedure, such as imposing more regulations on fertility clinics, limiting the number of embryos that can be created or transferred to the uterus at one time, and banning pre-implantation genetic testing, which they argue allows parents to discriminate against their embryos on the basis of sex, disabilities like Down Syndrome or other factors.”

“Those pushing to restrict IVF hope the groundwork the anti-abortion movement laid over the last 50 years will make it easier to persuade evangelicals to support these policies, and they’re recycling some of the messaging, including linking certain IVF practices with eugenics and calling the fertility industry ‘dangerous’ and ‘unregulated.’”

“The Republican Study Committee — a group comprising the majority of House GOP members — released a budget that includes language advocating for protections ‘at all stages of life,’ with no carveout for embryos fertilized through IVF.”

As families across the country are facing threats to IVF access, Trump’s MAGA minions in Congress are railing against IVF protections.

Associated Press: “Republicans block Senate bill to protect nationwide access to IVF treatments”

The Hill: “Senate Republicans blocked an effort Wednesday to pass legislation that would federally protect access to in vitro fertilization (IVF).”

CNN: “Johnson dismisses need for IVF legislation as GOP wrestles with reproductive issues”

“‘It’s not my belief that Congress needs to play a role here,’ the Louisiana Republican told reporters at the annual Republican issues conference held at The Greenbrier, a resort in West Virginia. ‘I think this is being handled by the states.’”

“In a remarkable split screen illustrating how the parties are handling the issue heading into November, Vice President Kamala Harris will visit a Planned Parenthood clinic in Minnesota also later Thursday, marking a significant and high-level visit to an abortion provider where she is expected to walk through the facility and speak with staff about reproductive rights.”

“Efforts in the Democratically-controlled Senate to protect IVF have also struggled to advance, as a pair of legislative efforts were blocked by Republicans in recent weeks. Democrats tried to pass bills on IVF based on unanimous consent, a process that is faster than usual Senate procedure but allows any one Senate member to object to advancing the legislation, something Republican senators did both times.”

Over 100 House Republicans — including Speaker Mike Johnson — co-sponsored the Life at Conception Act, which could rip away access to IVF treatment.

Daily Beast: “Republicans Struggle to Explain Away Their Hypocrisy on IVF”

Business Insider: “Most House Republicans have cosponsored a bill declaring that life begins from the moment of conception, a position under increased scrutiny after the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos are ‘unborn children.’

“This Congress, 125 House Republicans — including Speaker Mike Johnson — have cosponsored the ‘Life at Conception Act,’ which states that the term ‘human being’ includes ‘all stages of life, including the moment of fertilization, cloning, or other moment at which an individual member of the human species comes into being.’

“The bill does not include any exception for in vitro fertilization (IVF), a reproductive treatment that allows mothers to fertilize several eggs outside the womb in order to increase the chances of a viable pregnancy.”

NBC News: “But with the landmark Roe ruling protecting those rights gone, efforts by conservative lawmakers and judges to advance fetal personhood bills pose a real threat to some fertility treatments, including IVF, reproductive rights advocates say.”

Politico: “Dozens of congressional Republicans have signed onto so-called personhood legislation with no carve-out for embryos in clinics, which, if enacted, would upend how the procedure is practiced in the United States.”

To be clear: These GOP attacks on IVF are made possible by Donald Trump, who continues to brag about his role in overturning Roe v. Wade and paving the way for extreme abortion bans across the country.

CNN: “How the reversal of Roe v. Wade led to the Alabama Supreme Court ruling that frozen embryos are children”

New York Times: “[The Alabama ruling was] made possible by the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade in its 2022 Dobbs decision, which was a result of Mr. Trump’s appointment of three justices.”

Trump: “For 54 years they were trying to get Roe v. Wade terminated, and I did it, and I’m proud to have done it. … Nobody else was going to get that done but me, and we did it, and we did something that was a miracle.”

Trump: “I was able to kill Roe v. Wade… Without me there would be no 6 weeks, 10 weeks, 15 weeks, or whatever is finally agreed to. Without me the pro Life movement would have just kept losing. Thank you President TRUMP!!!”

Rolling Stone: “Trump Claims Credit for All Abortion Bans”

Business Insider: “Trump boasts he’s ‘proud’ about his role in overturning Roe v. Wade, the issue that has become ballot-box poison for Republicans”

Rolling Stone: “Trump Says He’s ‘Proud’ to Have ‘Terminated’ Abortion Rights”

FWIW: “This week, we found more evidence that the Trump campaign has no interest in ‘moderating’ on the issue of abortion. On Monday, his team began running new Facebook video ads targeting voters in Iowa, referring to Trump as ‘THE MOST Pro-Life President in history.’”

Trump campaign radio ad: “Trump nominated conservative judges, leading to Roe v. Wade being overturned.”