By Moira Warburton
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Senate is set to vote on Tuesday on a bill to enshrine federal protections and expand insurance coverage for fertility treatments, days after Republican former President Donald Trump surprised supporters by saying he would support such a law.
The Senate voted on the same bill in June, but it failed to get the required 60 votes to advance after most Republicans voted against it. Democrats control the chamber by a slim 51-49 margin.
The bill’s sponsor, Democratic Senator Tammy Duckworth, first attempted to get a vote on the same bill in late February, after the Alabama Supreme Court ruled the embryos used in in vitro fertilization, or IVF, should be considered children, jeopardizing access to the treatment used by millions of Americans every year. Republicans blocked it then, too.
Trump said in August he would require the government or insurance companies to pay for IVF if he is elected, shocking far-right Christian allies for whom the treatment is controversial.
“We want to produce babies in this country, right?” Trump said during a town hall-style campaign event in La Crosse, Wisconsin.
“Republicans had a chance to back up their rhetoric with action when we voted earlier this year and nearly all of them failed,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a speech on Monday. “I hope tomorrow will bring a different result.”
(Reporting by Moira Warburton in Washington; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
