Senate to Vote Again on IVF            09/17 06:22

   The Senate will vote for the second time this year on legislation that would 
establish a nationwide right to in vitro fertilization -- Democrats' latest 
election-year attempt to force Republicans into a defensive stance on women's 
health issues.

   WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Senate will vote for the second time this year on 
legislation that would establish a nationwide right to in vitro fertilization 
-- Democrats' latest election-year attempt to force Republicans into a 
defensive stance on women's health issues.

   The bill, which the Senate will vote on Tuesday, has little chance of 
passing this Congress, as Republicans already blocked the same bill earlier 
this year. But Democrats are hoping to use the do-over vote to put pressure on 
Republican congressional candidates and lay out a contrast between Vice 
President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump in the presidential 
race, especially as Trump has called himself a " leader on IVF."

   The push started earlier this year after the Alabama Supreme Court ruled 
that frozen embryos can be considered children under state law. Several clinics 
in the state suspended IVF treatments until the GOP-led legislature rushed to 
enact a law to provide legal protections for the clinics.

   Democrats quickly capitalized, holding a vote in June on the bill from 
Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth and warning that the U.S. Supreme Court could go 
after the procedure next after it overturned the right to an abortion in 2022. 
The legislation would also increase access to the procedure and lower costs.

   "The hard right has set its sights on a new target," Senate Majority Leader 
Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said on the floor Monday.

   All but two Republicans voted against the Democratic legislation, arguing 
that the federal government shouldn't tell states what to do. They said the 
bill was an unserious effort.

   Still, Republicans have scrambled to counter Democrats on the issue, with 
many making clear that they support IVF treatments. Trump last month announced 
plans, without additional details, to require health insurance companies or the 
federal government to pay for the common fertility treatment.

   In his debate with Harris earlier this month, Trump said he was a "leader" 
on the issue and talked about the "very negative" decision by the Alabama court 
that was later reversed by the legislature.

   But the issue has threatened to become a vulnerability for Republicans as 
some state laws passed by their own party grant legal personhood not only to 
fetuses but to any embryos that are destroyed in the IVF process.

   Duckworth, a military veteran who has used the fertility treatment to have 
her two children, has led the Senate effort on the legislation. "How dare 
you,'" she said in comments directed toward her GOP colleagues after the first 
vote blocking the bill.

   Republicans have tried to push alternatives on the issue, including 
legislation that would discourage states from enacting explicit bans on the 
treatment, but those bills have been blocked by Democrats who say it is not 
enough.

   Republican Sens. Katie Britt of Alabama and Ted Cruz of Texas tried in June 
to pass a bill that would threaten to withhold Medicaid funding for states 
where IVF is banned. Sen. Rick Scott, a Florida Republican, said in a floor 
speech then that his daughter was currently receiving IVF treatment and 
proposed to expand the flexibility of health savings accounts.

   Cruz, who is running for reelection in Texas, said it showed Democrats' 
efforts to pass legislation were a "cynical political decision."