Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz and Alabama Republican Senator Katie Britt introduced a bill to codify protections for in-vitro fertilization, also known as IVF, threatening to withdraw federal funds from any state which enacts a prohibition on the practice.
The bill, entitled the IVF Protection Act, claims to “not compel any person or organization to provide such services” while allowing states to “ensure appropriate health and safety standards” for IVF, a procedure in which a sperm and egg are artificially joined outside of the womb and implanted into the uterus of a woman. Yet the legislation would ensure that state governments which have “enacted an outright ban on access to IVF” would lose access to Medicaid funds.
“IVF has given miraculous hope to millions of Americans, and it has given families across the country the gift of children,” Cruz remarked in a statement about the bill.
Medicaid allows states and the federal government to jointly fund healthcare coverage for low-income residents. The program involved $806 billion in spending as of two years ago, representing nearly one-fifth of total national healthcare expenditures.
“IVF is pro-family, and I’m proud to strongly support continued nationwide access to this pathway to parenthood,” Britt contended in the statement. “As a mom, I know firsthand that there is no greater blessing than our children, and IVF helps families across America experience the joyous miracle of life, grow, and thrive. This commonsense piece of legislation affirms both life and liberty, family and freedom, and I look forward to working with my colleagues to enact it.”
Cruz and Britt both profess to be pro-life Christians, yet many conservative Christians have objected to IVF since the process typically involves discarding, freezing, or selectively aborting fertilized embryos which are deemed unwanted or unviable by parents and doctors.
The effort from Republicans to federally protect IVF continues the aftermath of the Alabama Supreme Court ruling that frozen embryos are indeed children who can be protected by wrongful death laws. Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Tom Parker noted in his concurring opinion that the Bible and the historic Western legal tradition affirm the value of preborn children, yet members of the Alabama Legislature moved to pass a law providing those involved in IVF with “civil and criminal immunity for death or damage to an embryo.”
The controversy over IVF continues amid the 2024 election cycle, provoking unease among Republicans as abortion emerges as a motivator for Democratic turnout. Former President Donald Trump and several Republican lawmakers have called for laws protecting IVF, while Trump and other Republicans have also softened their public stances on abortion.
