The bill would bar states that receive federal Medicaid funding from prohibiting IVF.
Senator Ted Cruz (R., Texas) and Senator Katie Britt (R., Ala) unveiled a bill Monday that would ensure IVF protection nationwide by amending the Social Security Act.
The bill would bar states that receive federal Medicaid funding from prohibiting IVF. States would also be ineligible to receive Medicaid payments if any local government within that state prohibited IVF. The bill defines IVF as the collection of eggs from ovaries, the manual fertilization of those eggs by sperm, and the transfer of embryos into a uterus.
The bill highlights the history of IVF, stating that since the 1970s the procedure has been a safe and reliable method of building families, adding that “IVF is a pro-woman and pro-family solution for couples struggling to have children”.
In a press release, Senator Cruz announced that he was “proud to…ensure couples in Texas and across the country have the opportunity to be loving parents by ensuring that IVF is protected at the federal level.” Senator Britt added that “this commonsense legislation affirms both life and liberty–family and freedom.”
Assisted-reproductive technologies have become a major flashpoint in this election cycle. The Alabama Supreme Court ruled in February that embryos had claims to fetal personhood, after a mishap at an IVF facility resulted in the accidental destruction of embryos.
After the Alabama Supreme Court ruling, Britt told an Alabama news outlet that she believed states should be left to determine IVF policies on their own and said Alabama was working to protect IVF access.
Yet Britt is now introducing IVF protection at the federal level. Britt has previously sponsored legislation that would ensure that unborn children with Down Syndrome are not targeted for abortion on the basis of their disability. Embryos with Trisomy 21 are routinely destroyed as part of the IVF process in the lab, ensuring couples have only chromosomally normal embryos to implant.
Britt’s team reiterated that the senator’s “position has consistently been that states should be the ones to set responsible health and safety standards regarding IVF (such as those types of ethical protections), which this bill preserves.”
Senator Cruz celebrated last year’s Dobbs ruling by stating that “this decision… leave(s) abortion policy up to the states and returns power to the American people.” In an interview with Bloomberg, Cruz argued that challenging issues belong to the states.
“The Constitution was written so that really difficult issues of public policy should be left to voters” Cruz said, “which reflects and respects democracy”. Cruz feels that IVF is “very different” from abortion in terms of morality, and therefore does not require state determination. “IVF is incredibly pro-family”, Cruz concluded, further elaborating that “if you want to have a child and need medical access to do so, that should be a federal right.”
Cruz’s office did not respond to a request for comment regarding the moral status of embryos created through IVF.
Cruz told Bloomberg that the bill should gain “overwhelming” bi-partisan support, and pass “100 to nothing,” Senator Tami Duckworth (D., Ill.) introduced similar legislation earlier this year, which neither Cruz nor Britt supported.
Senator Marshall (R., Kan) and Senator Booker (D., N.J.) had recently planned to introduce similar legislation ensuring IVF protection at the Federal level, called the HOPE for Fertility Services Act.