Sen. Patty Murray Pushes for Veteran Access to IVF in Wake of Alabama Supreme Court Ruling

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Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) announced that she will seek unanimous consent for her bill to provide all veterans with access to in vitro fertilization services in a March 11 press release.

This followed a highly anticipated statement by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and Department of Defense (DOD) from the same day regarding their plans to increase access to in vitro fertilization (IVF), revising regulations that formerly mandated that beneficiaries be legally married and which limited access for couples of the same sex.

This move stems from the enormous outrage that followed a verdict handed down by the Alabama Supreme Court on Feb. 16, which declared that embryos are legally deemed children under state law.

“VA’s announcement is an important step forward that will help more veterans start and grow their families—and it’s especially timely as IVF is under attack from the far right,” Ms. Murray said in a press release.

“Servicemembers and veterans have sacrificed so much for our country—but they should never have to sacrifice their ability to start a family. I have fought for over a decade to expand fertility care and treatment to more veterans and servicemembers, and I’m thrilled that DOD, and now VA, are making progress toward expanding their IVF services with new policies that will be life-changing for veterans and servicemembers who were for far too long excluded from care.

“This week, I will seek unanimous consent on the Senate floor to pass my bill that would help more veterans and servicemembers build their families and ensure no future administration can rip away the progress DOD and VA have made.”

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Ms. Murray’s bill, the Veterans Families Health Services Act, aims to permanently authorize and broaden fertility treatment and counseling options, including advanced assisted reproductive technologies such as IVF. It seeks to make these services more inclusive by ensuring eligibility for veterans’ spouses, partners, and gestational surrogates.

Additionally, the bill addresses proactive fertility services, proposing to allow servicemembers to access cryopreservation before deployment to combat zones or hazardous assignments, filling a current gap in DOD health care coverage.

Adoption assistance is also targeted for expansion at the VA, providing more family-building options for veterans facing infertility challenges.

Other Legislative Efforts

Senate Democrats previously sought unanimous consent from Republicans on legislation that would protect access to IVF in a measure that came before the Senate on Feb. 28.

Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.) objected to the legislation, blocking the resolution from the floor of the Senate when it was brought forward by Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) just after 5 p.m. on Feb. 28.

The legislation is sponsored by Ms. Duckworth and a number of her Democrat colleagues. They are asking that Senate Republicans support the Access to Family Building Act, which the lawmaker introduced in January of this year.

That legislation would have established “a federal right to access IVF and other [assisted reproductive technology] services for all Americans who need it, pre-empting state efforts to limit access and helping ensure no hopeful parent—or their doctors—are punished for trying to start or grow a family,” according to a Feb. 27 statement from the senator’s office.

However, in her objection to the legislation, Ms. Hyde-Smith asserted on the House floor that she supported “total access” to IVF for parents but said Ms. Duckworth’s legislation was “a vast overreach that is full of poison pills that go way too far—far beyond ensuring legal access to IVF.”

The lawmaker went on to say that the IVF legislation would have subjected religious and pro-life organizations to “crippling lawsuits” as well as forcing them to “facilitate procedures that violate their core beliefs, including their health insurance plans.”

Among the Mississippi lawmaker’s objections to the bill were what she characterized as the bill’s “expansion definition of ‘artificial reproductive technology,’” which she asserted went far beyond IVF. Ms. Hyde-Smith said in her floor speech that the legislation would have legalized commercial surrogacy, human cloning, “gene-editing designer babies,” and would have lifted the federal ban on the creation of three-parent embryos.

Original News Source Link – Epoch Times

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