Republicans on Tuesday blocked a bill that would have created a right to access in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatments and mandated that insurance plans cover the practice, deriding the vote as a political ploy.
Senators voted against advancing the bill, 51-44, marking the second time Democrats have sought to put Republicans on the record on the contentious issue. Sixty votes were needed to open debate on the measure.
Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) voted with every Democrat and independent.
Sens. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Joe Manchin (I-W.Va.), Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) and Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) did not vote.
GOP senators derided the Democratic legislation, authored by Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), as nothing more than a show vote, accusing Democrats of misrepresenting Republicans’ views on IVF.
Ahead of the vote, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) tried to pass via voice vote a competing bill he and Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.) introduced earlier this year that would withhold Medicaid funding from states that ban IVF, but it was blocked by Democrats.
“Let’s be clear — there is not a single senator in this chamber on either side of the aisle who wants to ban IVF,” Cruz said on the floor ahead of the votes.
But Democrats maintained that it was important to put members on the record after former President Trump rearranged the chess board on the topic by calling for universal coverage of IVF treatments.
“If Donald Trump is serious about protecting IVF, then he is busily calling all the Republican senators and telling them to vote ‘yes’ on today’s bill,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said ahead of the vote. “And if he’s not making those phone calls, well, then we know this is just one more Trump lie.”
“When Trump stands up and says he’s a champion for women … it’s as if he thinks we can’t hear him when he talks to his right-wing base about how he’s responsible for overturning Roe v. Wade,” Warren said. “It’s as if he thinks we can’t hear him when he takes credit for having created the problems that now exist when women can’t get access to abortion and when IVF clinics are in legal jeopardy.”
While some Republicans have signaled an increased openness to Trump’s call, they largely stuck together Tuesday.
The topic cropped up as a key election issue earlier this year when the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos are children, and clinics across the state swiftly ceased their operations.
GOP lawmakers are quick to note that Alabama legislators moved quickly to remedy the ruling, while offering fixes of their own.
Trump’s proposal came as a surprise to GOP lawmakers and seemed to divide them over the idea of requiring the government or insurance companies to cover treatments. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) indicated that he does not back the plan “because there’s no end to that” and pressed that he would prefer a means-tested tax credit instead.
Tillis told reporters last week he is a “little bit hesitant” about a possible mandate, especially with pressing business before the chamber next year with the expiration of the 2018 tax cuts affecting how to pay for IVF treatments.
In the meantime, Democrats have been relentless in tying IVF to other types of reproductive care, including abortion and contraceptives. They maintain that the conservative-leaning Supreme Court could take on those issues after the Dobbs ruling two years ago.
“Sadly, access to IVF can no longer be taken for granted. From the moment the MAGA Supreme Court eliminated [Roe v. Wade], the hard right made clear that they would keep going,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said on the Senate floor earlier Tuesday. “As we saw earlier this year in Alabama, IVF has become the next target of ultraconservatives, and access to this incredible treatment is more vulnerable than ever.”