Senate Republicans Block IVF Protections — Will House Republicans Refuse to Protect Freedom Too?
Today, Senate Republicans blocked a bill to protect Iowans’ right to access IVF treatment, once again putting Iowan women’s freedom to decide what they do with their bodies at risk.
Senator Joni Ernst said today that it’s “not yet” time for Congress to step in with nationwide legislation on IVF even though there’s legislation in the Iowa statehouse that says life begins at fertilization. Following an Alabama Supreme Court ruling banning IVF in Alabama, the overturning of Roe v. Wade, and several pieces of legislation that have already been proposed in previous Congresses to ban abortion and IVF treatment, we ask Senator Ernst: If not now, when?
We already know that Representatives Randy Feenstra, Ashley Hinson, and Mariannette Miller-Meeks are hostile to IVF, given their cosponsorship of the Life at Conception Act, which would impose restrictions on IVF in addition to restricting abortion access. Now, Iowans await to see if Representatives Miller-Meeks, Hinson, Feenstra, and Nunn have the courage to do what is right and vote to protect reproductive freedom, including IVF.
“Millions of American women have relied on IVF to help them start their families when other factors may otherwise make it impossible for them to do so. Putting IVF on the chopping block is an extreme response to a ruling that the majority of Americans, and Iowans, disagree with,” said IDP Chair Rita Hart. “Rather than change course and get on the side of their constituents, Republicans have instead chosen to continue digging their electoral hole, putting the very existence of future Iowan families at risk.”
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