A US Senate bill aimed at enshrining federal protections and expanding insurance coverage for fertility treatments failed on Tuesday, as Republicans voted against it days after Donald Trump surprised supporters by voicing support for such a policy.
The bill failed 51-44, falling short of the required 60-vote threshold after most Republicans voted against it for the second time. Democrats control the chamber by a slim 51-49 margin.
US President Joe Biden slammed the blockade of the bill, calling it “outrageous and unacceptable”.
“Yet again, Senate Republicans refused to safeguard access to fertility treatments for women trying to get pregnant. Republican officials have had every opportunity to protect reproductive freedom – from IVF to contraception – but they refuse to do so. The disregard for a woman’s right to make these decisions for herself and her family is outrageous and unacceptable,” the US President said.
The bill’s sponsor, Democratic Senator Tammy Duckworth, first attempted to get a vote on the same bill in late February, after the Alabama Supreme Court ruled the embryos used in in vitro fertilization, or IVF, should be considered children, jeopardizing access to the treatment used by millions of Americans every year.
“The freedom to get reproductive care is at risk for millions of other women whose most desperate hope in the world is to have a little one of their own,” Duckworth, who had her two daughters via fertility treatments, said in a Senate floor speech after Tuesday’s vote. “Republicans only seem to care about protecting life when it supposedly consists of some cells in a medical lab freezer.”
Republican presidential candidate Trump said in August he would require the government or insurance companies to pay for IVF if he is elected, surprising some hardline Republicans for whom the treatment is controversial.
“We want to produce babies in this country, right?” Trump said during a town hall-style campaign event in La Crosse, Wisconsin.
Trump’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.