Alabama’s junior senator accused Democrats of playing politics after they again blocked her bill Tuesday to protect in vitro fertilization treatments and then held a “show vote” on their version of the legislation less than two months before the presidential election.
Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., claimed the IVF Protection Act, which she co-authored with Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, is the more viable bill since it is also has a House version and could get 60 Senate votes.
“For many Americans, building a family, becoming a mom or dad – that’s their American Dream,” Britt said on the Senate floor shortly before she and Cruz tried to advance the bill.
Democrats blocked the legislation and then attempted to advance their Right to IVF Act, but that, too, failed to move forward.
In arguing for her legislation, Britt said it safeguards “religious liberty” because it does not compel facilities to offer IVF while offering “nationwide certainty and peace of mind” that IVF will remain legal. It also would bar states from receiving federal Medicaid dollars if they ban the procedure.
Both parties’ bills were inspired by the Alabama Supreme Court decision finding that frozen embryos have the same rights as children. The ruling led several IVF providers in Alabama to cut services amid fear of lawsuits before the state Legislature shielded the clinics from legal liability.
Alabama’s Legislature, as Britt noted, responded to the court ruling by providing legal immunity to IVF clinics and medical facilities.
While Britt’s bill has the best chance at becoming law, the senator claimed, “we’re going to have a show vote when we’ve been talking and saying that we want to protect access to IVF, but yet no one is actually working to get to the 60-vote threshold, which makes me wonder how serious my colleagues on the other side of the aisle are about this.”
The political back-and-forth comes as reproductive rights are a key issue in the 2024 election as both sides make their cases to voters.
“Senate Democrats’ Summer of Scare Tactics has expanded into a Fall of Fear-Mongering with continued partisan efforts to mislead and confuse the American people. IVF is legal and available in every state in the nation,” Britt said in a statement. “If Democrats truly were committed to common-ground solutions instead of self-serving scare tactics, then the IVF Protection Act would be on the floor today. Instead, Senator Schumer chose to play politics less than 50 days from Election Day.”
