February 28, 2024

Wyden Calls on Colleagues to Support Legislation to Protect IVF Nationwide

Watch a video of Wyden deliver remarks on the Senate floor here

As prepared for delivery

I come to the floor today to express my strong support for Senator Duckworth’s legislation to create protections for IVF under the law.

I think many of my colleagues would agree with me when I say this wasn’t an issue I thought I’d have to stand on the Senate floor debating in 2024, and yet, here we are. Just a few days ago, Alabama’s far-right Supreme Court handed down a first-of-its-kind ruling, which has effectively made IVF impossible in Alabama. 

Already, we’re seeing heartbreaking headlines about couples in the state being forced to rethink their plans to start a family through the IVF process. Some of these families have already spent tens of thousands of dollars and have undergone extensive medical treatment. Alabama’s largest hospital system – the University of Alabama – has already paused its IVF services over fear of prosecution. The decision to conceive a child through IVF is rarely ever a parents’ first choice. It’s physically and emotionally painful and taxing, tedious, and expensive. But for countless couples struggling with fertility, IVF offers the chance to start a family.

The IVF journey for many parents is a grueling one filled with countless doctors appointments, agonizing waits for test results, and disappointment. The process is also extremely delicate, and embryos can expire at any time during that process, entirely by accident. Under Alabama’s new ruling, a doctor or a woman undergoing treatment could be charged with wrongful death if an embryo expires during the IVF transfer or implementation process. That means women who are already undergoing this painful process could also be handed a wrongful death lawsuit on top of everything else. That’s nothing short of criminalizing people who try to become parents.

Unfortunately, while this ruling is a shocking one, it’s not all that surprising if you’ve been paying any attention to the ongoing war the far-right is waging on women and families in America. For years, Republicans laughed off our concerns over the vulnerability of abortion protections under Roe. Then they gutted it at the first opportunity. Since the Dobbs decision, those same Republicans have again tried to convince the American people that there is no threat of a national abortion ban, and no threat to any other facet of reproductive freedom like contraception, in short: no domino effect.  

Instead, the repeal of Roe has laid the groundwork for an onslaught of court rulings just like this one in Alabama – which explicitly references the Dobbs case – that will further strip women of their Constitutional freedoms and endanger their lives. The gaslighting would be laughable, if it weren’t so terrifying. We’re all familiar with the adage “when someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.” At every opportunity, Republicans have moved mountains in order to restrict the constitutional rights and freedoms of women, making it impossible for them to live their lives free from government intrusion. 

And they won’t rest until there’s a politician in every bedroom and exam room in America. And now, the party claiming to be the party of “family values” is denying an entire generation of women in Alabama the right to become mothers and start a family. In the wake of last week’s ruling, I saw a lot of my Republican colleagues attempt to distance themselves from the decision, claiming they unequivocally support IVF. But this is what they put into motion when they overturned Roe v. Wade. 

In fact, over a year ago, Senate Democrats tried to pass Senator Duckworth’s bill. Senate Republicans blocked it. So if my colleagues really do support IVF as they spent the weekend claiming, then they’re in luck. Today, they have an opportunity to prove it by going on the record and supporting this legislation. I urge my Republican colleagues to show the American people where they really stand on protecting the right to start a family by voting in favor.

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