ICYMI: FACT SHEET: Murray and Duckworth Outline How Republican Attacks on IVF are Serious, Real, and on the Rise Across America
Washington state is one of 29 states that does not require private insurers to cover IVF, Murray’s Right to IVF Act would expand insurance coverage of IVF for more families nationwide
Senator Murray: “Every Republican has a choice: They can vote for this bill and join us in sending a message that, yes, everyone should be able to get IVF, and no politician should be able to throw that care into jeopardy—or they can vote against it and send a very different message”
***WATCH:Senator Murray’s Floor Speech***
Washington, D.C.– Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), a senior member and former Chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, spoke on the Senate floor ahead of the Senate’s vote on her Right to IVF Act, which would establish a nationwide right to IVF and other assisted reproductive technology, expand insurance coverage of IVF services to lower the cost of IVF treatment for families, and expand access to IVF and other fertility services for our nation’s veterans and servicemembers. Access to IVF is overwhelmingly popular: 86% of Americans support continued access. Yesterday, Murray spoke at a press conference with IVF patients and doctors, and Senators Duckworth (D-IL) and Cory Booker (D-NJ), to highlight the importance of IVF to families and how Republican attacks on IVF, like we saw earlier this year in Alabama, have jeopardized access. Murray and Duckworth also released a new FACT SHEET outlining the very real and growing threat Republican lawmakers in Congress and across the country are posing to IVF and other assisted reproductive technology (ART) services.
“Today, we are putting Republicans on the record on an issue families across the country are deeply concerned about—the right to IVF. As we saw in Alabama, the threat to IVF is not hypothetical, it is not overblown, and it is not fearmongering,” Senator Murray said on the Senate floor today. “None of this should not be controversial, especially if Republicans are serious about supporting IVF and preventing more chaos like we saw in Alabama. The bottom line is, Americans saw earlier this year—with painful clarity—just how real the threat to IVF is. And they are going to see right now just who is serious about addressing that threat and protecting IVF access.”
“I think it is clear by now what this vote is about: Democrats want to make sure every person has the option to grow their family using IVF, and that no politician can take it away,” Murray continued. “Every Republican has a choice: they can vote for this bill, and join us in sending a message that, yes, everyone should be able to get IVF, and no politician should be able to throw that care into jeopardy—or they can vote against it and send a very different message… Whatever Republicans choose—I guarantee the American people are watching closely. They are going to get the message loud and clear, and they are not going to forget it.
Costs for a single cycle of IVF range from $15,000 to $20,000 and can exceed $30,000. The average number of cycles needed to become pregnant from IVF is 2.5, meaning that the cost to conceive successfully through IVF can easily exceed $40,000. Washington state is one of 29 states in America that does not require private insurance issuers to cover any fertility services, and as a result, many families who need these vital services simply don’t have access. The Right to IVF Act would change this—helping more middle-class Americans afford critical fertility treatments that have, for far too long, been out of reach.
The Right to IVF Act, introduced by Senators Murray, Duckworth, and Booker, builds on the lawmakers’ previous efforts to protect and strengthen access to IVF. This pro-family, pro-freedom legislative package includes:
- Senator Murray and Duckworth’s Access to Family Building Act, which would establish a nationwide right for patients to access IVF and other assisted reproductive technology (ART) services, a right for doctors to provide IVF treatment in accordance with medical standards as well as a right for insurance carriers to cover IVF without prohibition, limitation, interference or impediment. By establishing a statutory right, this would pre-empt any state effort to limit such access and ensuring no hopeful parent—or their doctors—are punished for trying to start or grow a family.
- In February, Senator Duckworth sought unanimous consent to pass this legislation and Republican U.S. Senator of Mississippi Cindy Hyde-Smith blocked it.
- Senator Murray’s Veteran Families Health Services Act, which would expand the fertility treatments and family-building services that are covered under servicemembers’ and veterans’ health care to include—among other things—the option for individuals to cryopreserve their gametes (freeze their eggs or sperm) ahead of deployment to a combat zone and IVF for servicemembers and veterans who are unable to conceive without assistance.
- In March, Senator Murray sought unanimous consent to pass this legislation and Republican U.S. Senator of Oklahoma James Lankford blocked it.
- Senator Booker’s Access to Infertility Treatment and Care Act, which would increase the affordability of fertility care—including IVF—by requiring employer-sponsored insurance plans and other public insurance plans to cover fertility treatments. Additionally, it would standardize a baseline of high-quality fertility treatment coverage under private health insurance plans, while protecting Americans against excessive out-of-pocket costs.
- Senator Duckworth’s Family Building FEHB Fairness Act, which would require health insurers in the Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) Program—the largest employer-sponsored health insurance plan in the world—to cover IVF and ART to help more hardworking Americans start and grow their families.
A summary of the Right to IVF Act can be found HERE.
Senator Murray’s full remarks, as delivered on the Senate floor, are below:
“Thank you, Mr. President. Mr. President, last week, every Senator was put on the record as to whether they will defend the right to contraception.
“And despite Republicans’ words about supporting birth control, their actions—voting against the Right to Contraception Act—spoke louder.
“Today, we are putting Republicans on the record on another issue families across the country are deeply concerned about—the right to IVF.
“As we saw in Alabama, the threat to IVF is not hypothetical, it is not overblown, and it is not fearmongering.
“After the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that a frozen embryo is the same—has the exact same rights—as a living, breathing, human person, women who waited for months, and spent tens of thousands of dollars, and were days away from an IVF appointment, were left to wonder if it was all for nothing when their treatment was abruptly canceled.
“And families that had already gone through IVF were left to wonder if they could have their providers now dispose unused embryos without facing legal threats.
“This happened! It was national news. It was complete chaos.
“So Republican efforts to dismiss this vote as fearmongering are simply not going to fly, especially when right now there are Republican bills—right now—that would enshrine, as a matter of law, that life begins at conception and that discarding unused embryos is essentially murder.
“That would essentially end IVF in our country.
“And this is not a fringe bill, either—it is supported by the majority of House Republicans—including the Speaker!
“Mr. President, I don’t know how to make this any clearer to my Republican colleagues: you cannot support IVF and support fetal personhood laws. They are fundamentally incompatible!
“Democrats are not going to let Republicans off the hook for their support for fetal personhood—this is a dangerous and extreme ideology that the public must understand Republicans support wholeheartedly.
“We also are not going to let Republicans paper over their extremism with their so-called solution—a bill that is not only silent on ensuring embryos can be discarded, but that explicitly allows states to put burdensome restrictions on IVF and create the kind of legal uncertainty that forced clinics in Alabama to close their doors.
“Mr. President, I do have good news for any of my Republican colleagues who do genuinely want to support IVF—in a serious, meaningful way—we have a bill before us today that will do just that!
“And we are going to vote on it very shortly! The Right to IVF Act.
“I really want to thank Senator Duckworth and Senator Booker for working with me to put together a bill that would protect Americans from attempts to restrict IVF and help people get those vital services at a lower cost.
“The Right to IVF Act would establish a federal right for patients to get IVF care and for doctors to provide it.
“It would ensure more health insurance plans cover IVF services—making care finally accessible to middle-class and lower-income families who desperately need it.
“And this package includes my bill to help more veterans and servicemembers who have difficulty conceiving get the critical fertility services they need to start their families—including IVF.
“This is something I have long been pushing for, for years now—and it is long overdue.
“All these men and women who fought to protect our families, we owe it to them to make sure they have the support when they come home to grow theirs.
“None of this should be controversial, especially if Republicans are serious about supporting IVF, and preventing more chaos like we saw in Alabama.
“I’ll have more to say before the final vote,but the bottom line is, Americans saw earlier this year with painful clarity just how real the threat to IVF is.
“And they are going to see right now just who is serious about addressing that threat and protecting IVF access.”
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