In response to MAGA Senate Republicans blocking the Right to IVF Act, DNC National Press Secretary ⁨Emilia Rowland⁩ released the following statement:

“Today, Democrats forced Senate Republicans to say the quiet part out loud — these MAGA extremists do not support protecting Americans’ freedom to start a family through IVF treatment. Despite the hollow and hypocritical promises Republicans in Congress are making, their actions speak louder than their words, and it’s clear they have zero interest in protecting IVF. Instead, they’re cozying up to the architects of Trump’s extremist Project 2025 agenda, who are not only attacking access to IVF but call it ‘eugenics.’ President Biden, Vice President Harris, and Democrats in Congress won’t let Trump and MAGA Republicans strip us of even more of the freedoms our mothers and grandmothers fought to secure decades ago.”

SHOT/CHASER: Senate Republicans signed onto a statement “supporting” access to IVF… just to block a bill protecting it the next day. 

Anthony Adranga, Politico: “New: All 49 Senate Republicans sign onto statement supporting access to IVF: 

“‘We strongly support continued nationwide access to IVF, which has allowed millions of aspiring parents to start and grow their families.’”

The Hill: “Legislation to establish a national right to in-vitro fertilization (IVF) was blocked by Senate Republicans on Thursday, amid a push by Democrats to put the GOP on defense over reproductive rights ahead of the November elections… 

“The Right to IVF Act, sponsored by Sens. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Cory Booker (D-N.J.), is a package of four bills that would both establish a nationwide right to IVF and other assisted reproductive technology, as well as lower the costs of IVF treatment to make it more accessible.  

“The vote Thursday is the latest in a series set up by Senate Democratic leadership about codifying reproductive rights.” 

Anti-choice Republicans keep shooting down any bill to protect access to IVF that Democrats introduce.

Alanna Vagianos, HuffPost: “Just now: Senate Republicans block a bill to protect IVF & other fertility services for veterans & service members.”

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

Speaker MAGA Mike Johnson has said Congress doesn’t need to enact IVF protections — which checks out, considering he and 124 other House Republicans have supported the Life at Conception Act, which could rip away IVF access from families nationwide. 

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.’”

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.”

These MAGA GOP threats to IVF are made possible by Donald Trump, who has bragged about appointing the Supreme Court justices who helped overturn Roe v. Wade, paving the way for threats to IVF access. 

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.”

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

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: “After 50 years of failure, with nobody coming even close, I was able to kill Roe v. Wade, much to the ‘shock’ of everyone … 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”

Donald Trump has had deep ties to the anti-IVF movement since he entered office in 2017, even going as far as elevating some hardline proponents to positions of power.

HuffPost: “Donald Trump Has Deep Ties To Anti-IVF Movement”

“Like many Republicans, Trump’s words of support don’t align with his past actions on IVF. The current Republican presidential nominee ― who has repeatedly bragged about his role in repealing federal abortion protections ― has deep ties to extreme right-wing organizations that actively oppose IVF.”

“While in the White House, Trump and his administration praised, appointed and worked with some of the nation’s most extreme thought leaders who believe the IVF process is akin to murder. Trump hosted the Alabama Supreme Court chief justice who wrote the IVF ruling twice: once during his 2016 campaign and in 2018 at the White House. (This is the same chief justice who recently appeared on a QAnon conspiracist’s show.)”

“The former president also met multiple times while in office with Lila Rose, president and founder of the anti-abortion group Live Action, who recently said she was ‘proud’ of the Alabama Supreme Court for acknowledging that ‘a baby conceived via IVF should have the same legal protections as a baby conceived naturally.’”

“During his time as president, Trump appointed several extreme anti-IVF advocates to positions of power, including Tim Wildmon, who served on the Trump administration’s faith advisory council. Wildmon is the president of the American Family Association, an extreme anti-abortion organization that just last week opposed a Mississippi bill aimed at protecting IVF because it would open the door to ‘procedures like human cloning, designer babies, three-parent babies and even human-animal hybrids.’

“He also appointed a woman who spent much of her career attacking assisted reproductive technologies, such as IVF and surrogacy, to a lifetime federal judicial appointment. Sarah Pitlyk, who was deemed ‘not qualified’ by the American Bar Association, wrote in multiple rulings that states should treat embryos as humans. Trump put Pitlyk on a shortlist of Supreme Court justice picks. The job went to Amy Coney Barrett, who publicly supported an anti-abortion group that believes IVF should be criminalized.”

“Trump has not endorsed any IVF protections on the national or state level. And despite Republican claims of supporting IVF access, they blocked Democrats’ attempt to pass legislation to safeguard fertility treatments on the federal level.

“Abortion rights advocates have warned that the anti-choice movement would come for IVF and fertility treatments once Roe v. Wade fell. Currently, more than a dozen states are considering laws that would enshrine fetal personhood, threatening IVF and other fertility treatments.”

The Heritage Foundation, which is spearheading Trump’s anti-choice Project 2025, has compared IVF to “eugenics.” 

The Heritage Foundation said that Congress should set standards to “prevent the wanton or careless destruction of embryonic human beings,” and said that the way IVF is practiced in the U.S. amounts to “eugenics.”

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.

“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.’”

President Biden and Democrats will continue to fight to make it easier for families to access and afford IVF treatment. 

NBC News: “Senate Democrats introduce legislative protections for IVF”

“The Right to IVF Act, led by Sens. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, Patty Murray of Washington and Cory Booker of New Jersey, includes four bills to preserve access to IVF and make it more affordable to get the procedure, which has helped millions of families have children.”

NBC News: “One administration official said IVF was included in some of the executive actions already taken by the Biden administration since Roe v. Wade was overturned, such as safeguarding patients’ health information and strengthening protections for people helping patients travel for reproductive care.”