On IVF, Schumer Dares Senate GOP To Put Their Money Where Trump’s Mouth Is

Last updated: 2024/09/13 at 2:12 AM

In Donald Trump’s desperate bid to win over voters who are, justifiably, concerned about the perilous position into which the Dobbs ruling has placed access to crucial fertility treatments like in vitro fertilization, the former president tried to cast himself as a “leader” on IVF during Tuesday night’s debate.

In recent weeks, he’s also announced his support for a policy that sounds not dissimilar to the provisions laid out in a bill that Senate Democrats put forward this summer that would have established federal protections for IVF treatment and mandate that public and private insurance plans cover the procedure — that is, if Senate Republicans hadn’t blocked it. Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) has, in fact, tried to bring the bill to protect IVF access to the Senate floor for a vote three times since June 24, 2022 when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, dismantling the federal right to an abortion and putting all forms of reproductive care in harms way. Senate Republicans, while publicly proclaiming their support for the fertility treatment, which is universally popular among voters, have blocked the bill from advancing to a vote each time.

The blockade was particularly whiplash-inducing after Republicans in both chambers of Congress put out toothless statements declaring their support for the procedure in February, after the Alabama Supreme Court declared embryos to be “babies,” sparking panic nationwide and forcing fertility clinics to pause IVF treatments in the state. At the time, Republicans were struggling to get on the same page, attempting to declare their supposedly impenetrable support of IVF while also agreeing with Alabama Supreme Court justices and the fetal personhood ideology at the heart of the ruling — that embryos are “babies.”

When Duckworth brought the legislation to the floor for a procedural vote in February, Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-TN) blocked its advancement, just as she did in 2022. Republicans did the same thing in June.

But that was before Trump decided to make support for IVF a pillar of his 2024 campaign.

It’s a familiar dance of hypocrisy. For years, Republicans have publicly declared their ardent support for the procedure, while also pushing fetal personhood ideology in legislation, like bills that declare life begins at conception. If such measures were to become law, IVF access would face an existential threat. Similar to the position the Alabama ruling put the procedure in, legally declaring embryos to be living people would automatically outlaw key elements of the IVF procedure — such as the necessary practice of freezing or destroying nonviable embryos.

Trump is hoping American voters have short-term memories. As he attempts to garner support from women, undecided voters and moderate Republicans who are not thrilled with the party’s extreme abortion bans in red states, Trump recently pledged free IVF treatments to all Americans, paid for by the federal government or private insurance companies, if he wins in the fall, taking Democrats’ proposal a step further. Sounds great!

The problem is, he’s the reason such policy is necessary in the first place.

And to say Republicans in Congress and anti-abortion activists aren’t necessarily on board with a policy that shares DNA with the GOP’s Public Enemy No. 1, Obamacare, is an understatement. As Politico outlined in this new piece Thursday, deficit hawk Senate Republicans are enraged by the idea of a sweeping new federal mandate, while extreme anti-abortion activists already think that IVF is for baby killers.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) reportedly plans to capitalize on this tension in coming weeks by forcing yet another vote on Duckworth’s IVF bill, hoping to get Republicans on record opposing the very policy that Trump just decided to make the center of his campaign for the White House.