- Iowa Senators Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst joined Republicans to block a bill by Democrats that would establish a federal right to access fertility treatments.
- The legislation would establish a nationwide right for patients to access fertility treatments, including in vitro fertilization, and other assisted reproductive technologies.
- Democrats have seized on the issue amid a growing partisan clash over the fate of reproductive health care in the country.
- The votes come a week after U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks introduced legislation that would provide a fully refundable tax credit of up to $30,000 for fertility treatments.
Iowa U.S. senators Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst joined Republican colleagues Tuesday to block a bill by Democrats that would establish a federal right to access fertility treatments.
The pair voted against a procedural measure to advance the Right to IVF Act. The bill failed, 51-44, falling short of the 60-vote threshold Democrats needed to overcome a filibuster to move forward on the bill. All GOP senators, except Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, voted against the bill. Collins and Murkowski voted with Democrats to move forward on the bill.
It’s the second time this year Republicans have blocked legislation to establish a nationwide right to in vitro fertilization, arguing that the vote is an election-year stunt after Democrats forced a vote on the issue.
The legislation would establish a nationwide right for patients to access fertility treatments, including in vitro fertilization, and other assisted reproductive technologies. It would provide federal protections for doctors and insurance companies to provide it in an effort to preempt state efforts to limit the services. It also would require more health insurers to cover it and expand coverage for military service members and veterans.
Democrats have seized on the issue amid a growing partisan clash over the fate of reproductive health care in the country in the wake of a 2022 U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning a federally protected right to abortion. The decision gave states the authority to enact their own abortion laws, creating a fractured patchwork of abortion policies across the country.
Democrats say Republicans who insist they support IVF are being hypocritical because they won’t support legislation guaranteeing a right to it.
Grassley, in a statement to The Gazette on Wednesday, called the vote an election-year stunt by Democrats to force Republicans into a defensive stance on women’s health issues and highlight policy differences between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump in the presidential race. Trump called himself a “leader on IVF” and said he supported requiring insurance companies or the federal government to cover treatment costs.
Grassley accused Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-NY, of making IVF “a political pawn at the expense of families’ peace of mind.”
“Despite Democrat fearmongering, IVF access is not in jeopardy,” he said. “It’s legal in all 50 states, and all Senate Republicans support nationwide access, including me.”
He noted Senate Republicans offered their own legislation that would ban states from getting access to Medicaid funding if they bar IVF services. However, it does not explicitly guarantee a right to IVF services.
“I’m proud to advocate for pro-life, pro-family and pro-mother policies,” Grassley said.
Ernst echoed Grassley in a statement to The Gazette, and said Democrats are misleading Americans about IVF during an election year.
“I strongly support continued nationwide access to IVF, which has allowed millions of aspiring parents to start and grow their families,” Ernst said.
Miller-Meeks’ proposal would provide IVF tax credit
Grassley’s and Ernst’s votes come a week after U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, R-Iowa, introduced legislation that would provide a fully refundable tax credit of up to $30,000 for fertility treatments. The bill seeks to provide financial relief to individuals and couples pursuing IVF expenses.
The Internal Revenue Service permits a limited medical expense deduction for expenses relating to IVF treatments. However, the average IVF treatment cycle ranges from $15,000 to $30,000 — a significant financial burden for many Americans, Miller-Meeks said during a House floor speech Wednesday.
“As a physician, I value every life, and as a mother, I understand the importance of empowering families to expand on their own terms and their own timelines,” Miller-Meeks said. “… I urge my colleagues to support this bill, making the dream of parenthood more attainable and reaffirming our commitment to helping families.”
Miller-Meeks is facing a re-election challenge from Democrat Christina Bohannan, a former state lawmaker and University of Iowa law professor, who is emphasizing abortion access in her race to unseat Miller-Meeks.
In Congress, Miller-Meeks co-sponsored the 2021-22 Life At Conception Act that states life begins at fertilization, banning all abortions. It has no exceptions for rape, incest or the woman’s life, and does not specify protections for fertility treatments.
Miller-Meeks did not sign on as a sponsor of the resolution in the current Congress. She has said she supports a national 15-week ban on abortion with exceptions for rape, incest and life of the mother. She co-sponsored a non-binding resolution that “strongly supports the access to and use of IVF treatments across the United States” — but it did not offer any legal protections for patients or providers.
Iowa Democrat: Republicans’ actions don’t match their words
The issue has threatened to become a vulnerability for Republicans as some state laws passed by their party grant legal personhood not only to fetuses but to any embryos that are destroyed in the IVF process.
Iowa Democratic Party Chair Rita Hart said in a news release Tuesday that Grassley’s and Ernst’s votes show their actions fail to match their words.
“Republicans keep playing dangerous political games with health care policies that literally decide whether Iowans can start a family,” Hart said. “Today, Iowa Senators Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst showed once again that Republicans have no interest in creating exceptions to their extreme abortion laws and that they don’t care about the effects that these harmful laws have on Iowans.”
Democrats have sought to connect access to IVF to Republicans’ broader anti-abortion position after a decision by the Alabama Supreme Court that frozen embryos could be considered children temporarily halted access to IVF. Republican leaders in Alabama quickly passed a law shielding fertility clinics from liability for discarding embryos.
Republicans in the Iowa Legislature this year shelved a bill to criminalize the death of an “unborn person” over concerns it would threaten the legality of IVF.
Sen. Brad Zaun, a Republican from Urbandale and chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, did not advance the bill specifically because of questions about its potential impact on IVF.
During debate in the Iowa House, where it passed the chamber with only Republican support, GOP lawmakers insisted the bill would not impact fertility treatments, and that its focus specifically was on the crime of nonconsensual termination of a pregnancy.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Comments: (319) 398-8499; tom.barton@thegazette.com
