WASHINGTON – Two Republican senators have joined forces to prevent states from enacting a ban on in vitro fertilization, months after the Alabama Supreme Court struck down access to the procedure, ruling that fertilized embryos are children under state law.
Meaning. Katie Britt from Alabama and Ted Cruz from Texas presented three-page bill on Monday, it would cut off state Medicaid funding if the state banned in vitro fertilization.
“As a mother, I know firsthand that there is no greater blessing than our children, and in vitro fertilization helps families across the country experience the joyful miracle of life, grow and thrive,” Britt said in a statement. “This common-sense legislation affirms both life and liberty – family and liberty, and I look forward to working with my colleagues to bring it into law.”
Cruz wrote that “IVF has given miraculous hope to millions of Americans and to families across the country the gift of children.”
The bill comes months after the Alabama Supreme Court issued its ruling ruled that fertilized embryos that have been frozen or not implanted constitute children under the 1872 law.
State lawmakers approved the decision, and Gov. Kay Ivey then signed a bill giving the state’s in vitro fertilization clinics civil and criminal protections so they can reopen. Questions though stay and at least one of the state’s in vitro fertilization clinics did so Closed.
Democrats in Congress have introduced their own bills to provide nationwide protection for in vitro fertilization, although two of those bills were blocked from quick Senate passage by GOP lawmakers.
Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith of Mississippi in tardy February prevent Illinois Democratic Senator Tammy Duckworth from receiving unanimous consent to pass a bill that would protect in vitro fertilization nationwide.
This bill would block restrictions on “assisted reproductive technology services” that are “more burdensome than restrictions or requirements imposed on medically comparable procedures, do not significantly improve the reproductive health or safety of such services, and unduly restrict access to such services.” .
Oklahoma Republican Senator James Lankford in March blocked Democratic Senator Patty Murray of Washington State has moved quickly to pass legislation that would expand access to in vitro fertilization for military service members and veterans.
