Democrats pushed again this week to spotlight Republican’s unpopular positions on reproductive rights, slamming Senate Republicans for voting Tuesday to block a bill to expand access to in vitro fertilization and accusing former president Donald Trump of putting women’s lives at risk.
The Senate vote aimed to remind voters two years after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade that Trump appointed the justices who backed that decision, that congressional Republicans could seek to ban abortion nationwide, and that even non-abortion procedures such as IVF could be at risk.
Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday called Republicans’ opposition to the bill “extreme, dangerous, and wrong” in a statement after the vote failed. “Our administration will always fight to protect reproductive freedoms, which must include access to IVF.’
Earlier in the day, Harris blamed Trump for the death of a woman in Georgia who died from an infection after failing to receive a timely abortion at a hospital in the state that has banned it, according to an investigation by ProPublica. “This young mother should be alive, raising her son, and pursuing her dream of attending nursing school,” Harris said in a statement, casting the death as a consequence of Trump’s actions.
As the election enters its final weeks, Democrats are seizing on IVF and abortion in races up and down the ballot, as more voters consistently side with Democrats over Republicans on both issues and the GOP struggles to find a consistent — and credible — message.
Republicans, who said they would vote against the Senate bill because it is a federal overreach, have nonetheless insisted they are largely supportive of IVF. Every Republican senator signed a letter saying they support IVF, and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.), who is up for reelection this fall, introduced a separate bill that would punish states that ban IVF by withholding Medicaid funds from them.
Still, Democrats in close races up and down the ballot are seeking to tie Republicans to both abortion bans and an Alabama court’s decision to thrust IVF into legal jeopardy. Both procedures are supported by a majority of Americans.
The approach has put Republicans on defense, particularly Trump, who has said he wouldn’t sign a bill banning abortion nationwide and has called for states to choose abortion limits for themselves, after calling himself the “most pro-life president” during his first term. Trump has recently said on the campaign trail that he is a “leader in fertilization” and would mandate free IVF procedures.
But Republicans again blocked the bill, called the Right to IVF Act, after previously blocking it in June, when only Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) voted with Democrats to allow debate on it. The bill would mandate insurance coverage for the procedure and guarantee a federal right to access.
“Three months ago, nearly every Senate Republican voted against protecting IVF in this chamber,” Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer said on the floor Tuesday. “It was astounding to watch them with a straight face … claim that of course they cared about supporting families, of course they supported IVF. Just not enough to actually vote to protect it.”
A Trump campaign spokeswoman did not return a request for comment on where Trump stood on the Senate IVF bill. Democrats slammed him for his silence.
“He can send out a tweet right now and get all my Republican colleagues to vote for this,” said Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), a combat-wounded veteran who conceived her two daughters using IVF.
Republicans dismissed the bill as a political “show vote” that had no chance of becoming law. Sen. John Thune (S.D.), the No. 2 Senate Republican, accused Schumer of creating “a political wedge issue just because it’s an election year.”
“Everybody knows the outcome of this, and I think it would be in everybody’s best interest if we actually were doing the things that people expect us to be doing here,” he said, mentioning appropriations bills as one example.
The vote failed to reach the 60 votes needed to proceed, with just two Republicans crossing the aisle to support it. Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), who was campaigning in Michigan on Tuesday, did not vote.
Harris’s campaign has spent more than $22 million on ads since early August that reference abortion rights, according to data from the firm AdImpact. Before that, President Joe Biden spent $12.6 million between March and July on ads referencing abortion rights.
Some Republicans in swing districts are starting to run ads portraying themselves in favor of IVF and abortion rights — or at least not opposed to them. In a campaign ad released last week, Republican candidate Matt Gunderson looks directly into the camera as he labels himself “pro-choice.”
“On a woman’s right to choose, I’m pro-choice,” says Gunderson, who is running to unseat Democratic Rep. Mike Levin in California. “I believe abortion should be safe, legal and rare.”
At least four vulnerable House Republicans have either called themselves “pro-choice” or vowed to oppose a national abortion ban in recent ads, interviews or op-eds. At least three House Republicans have released campaign ads or texts saying they support IVF. And one Republican Senate candidate, former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, is running ads saying he would vote to codify Roe v. Wade.
In a call with reporters hosted by the Harris campaign before the vote, speakers predicted the vote would demonstrate Trump and Vance are not as supportive of IVF as they claim to be. Vance voted against proceeding to the legislation in June.
Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) scoffed at Trump’s recent proposal to require free IVF access, saying there is “no way in the world that I believe that Donald Trump is serious about this.”
“This is a guy who is trapped in his own decisions to rip away abortion services and reproductive freedom,” Stabenow said. “He’s scrambling. That’s what he always does.’
Mariana Alfaro and Patrick Svitek contributed to this report.