Republicans Again Block Bill Protecting Access To IVF

WASHINGTON ― Last month, GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump surprised almost everybody in the nation’s capital by floating a plan to require insurance companies to pay for the costs of in vitro fertilization for women who need it.

On Tuesday, Senate Republicans blocked a bill that would do just that.

It’s the second time in recent months that the GOP has filibustered the Right to IVF Act, Democratic legislation that, in addition to ensuring insurance coverage for such treatments, would also enshrine into federal law a right for individuals to receive IVF treatment as well as for doctors to provide it.

The vote fell largely along party lines, 51 to 44, short of the 60 votes the bill would’ve needed to advance.

“Republicans want people to think they support IVF because they know how unpopular that position is. They want to keep their true agenda hidden from the public,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) warned during a press conference on the steps of the Capitol. He was flanked by his Democratic colleagues, who held up large photos of families who have used IVF.

Democrats initially forced a vote on the bill in June after a ruling earlier this year by the Alabama Supreme Court that declared that frozen embryos can be considered children. IVF providers in the state responded by ceasing to offer services for fear of being held legally liable if embryos were destroyed. The GOP state legislature later passed a bill extending liability protections for IVF providers.

Republicans have insisted since then that they support IVF ― even if some in their evangelical base are opposed to the treatment ― as they seek to appeal to women voters ahead of November’s elections.

“We are going to be, under the Trump