Senate Republicans on Tuesday blocked an election-season bid by Democrats to advance legislation that would guarantee federal protections and insurance coverage for in vitro fertilization treatments, the second time in three months that the G.O.P. has thwarted the broadly popular measure.
Democrats orchestrated the failed vote, just weeks before the November elections, in part to highlight Republican opposition to abortion rights and its implications for access to other reproductive health care services.
They sought to remind voters that the G.O.P. was holding firm against federal protections for I.V.F. even after the party’s presidential nominee, former President Donald J. Trump, called himself a “leader” on the issue and said he supported requiring insurance companies or the federal government to cover the treatments. Mr. Trump did not provide any specifics about how that would work.
All but two Republicans present — Senators Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine, both of whom support abortion rights — voted against allowing the I.V.F. access bill to move forward, leaving Democrats nine votes short of the 60 necessary to begin debating it. The last time Republicans blocked the legislation in June, Ms. Murkowski and Ms. Collins were also the only G.O.P. lawmakers to cross party lines and vote to move the measure forward. Senator JD Vance of Ohio, Mr. Trump’s running mate, voted to block the legislation in June; he was absent on Tuesday and did not vote.
Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and majority leader, used Mr. Trump’s recent statements as an opening to revisit an issue that has become the biggest political liability for vulnerable Republicans facing competitive races in November. With polls showing that even a majority of Republican voters support access to I.V.F., Republican lawmakers have been trying to airbrush or at times flatly misrepresent their records on policies that would limit reproductive rights.
On Tuesday, Democrats rolled their eyes at Mr. Trump’s recent attempts to portray himself as a champion of I.V.F. and blamed him for putting access to the treatments in jeopardy by appointing Supreme Court justices who voted to overturn Roe v. Wade.
“I doubt that Donald Trump even knows what the acronym I.V.F. stands for,” said Senator Tammy Duckworth, Democrat of Illinois and the lead sponsor of the bill, said at a news conference on the Senate steps ahead of the vote. “Despite the incoherent, delusional and frankly embarrassing ramblings that came out of his mouth last week, he is the reason that I.V.F. is at risk in the first place.”
Senator Patty Murray, Democrat of Washington, said Senate Republicans, like Mr. Trump, were “posturing as pro-family while voting down this bill to help families grow, pretending to support I.V.F. while championing fetal personhood.”
Ms. Murray issued them a challenge: “If Republicans are serious about supporting I.V.F., if Trump’s promise to help families pay for it is more than just bluster, there’s no reason we can’t pass this bill into law and help a lot of people.”
To nobody’s surprise, they could not.
Republicans called the bill a political stunt staged to falsely portray them as opponents of I.V.F. Senator John Cornyn, Republican of Texas, has said the measure is unnecessary because I.V.F. is not currently in jeopardy in most states.
Alabama’s Supreme Court ruled in February that frozen embryos should be considered children, potentially criminalizing aspects of in vitro fertilization treatment, which typically involves creating several embryos and implanting some while discarding others. Many Republicans in Congress have supported fetal personhood legislation that would effectively do the same thing.
Senator Katie Britt, Republican of Alabama, raised concerns that the I.V.F. bill could violate religious freedoms by forcing people who do not believe in the treatments to provide them. Democrats noted that the legislation would not force anyone to provide I.V.F.
Ahead of the vote, Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, sought unsuccessfully to push forward an alternative bill that would make states ineligible to receive Medicaid funding if they ban access to I.V.F.
“I’m an unequivocal supporter of protecting I.V.F.,” Mr. Cruz said on the Senate floor Tuesday. But he said Democrats were pushing a partisan bill “to stoke baseless fears about I.V.F. and push their broader political agenda.” He said Democrats simply wanted a campaign issue to run on and had introduced a “radical, anti-religious liberty bill” that was designed to fail.
“If we pass this law,” Mr. Cruz said of his bill, which is cosponsored by Ms. Britt, “they couldn’t run their misleading campaign commercials.”
Democrats and reproductive rights advocates have dismissed the Republican bill as a pretense to cover up the G.O.P.’s refusal to directly safeguard I.V.F. They note that it does not explicitly bar states from restricting I.V.F. treatments, including imposing severe limits that stop just short of a ban.
Ms. Murray called Mr. Cruz’s bill “a hollow gesture” that “would still allow states to regulate I.V.F. out of existence.”
“This bill is silent on fetal personhood, which is the biggest threat to I.V.F.,” she added.
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