The Senate will vote again Tuesday on Democrats’ Right to IVF Act, in another attempt by Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to squeeze Republicans on the issue.
GOP senators indicated Monday evening that they’ll again vote to block the measure, panning it as another political ploy and “show” vote intended to boost vulnerable Democrats.
“Schumer doesn’t want to pass stuff. He just wants to have show votes to try to win elections,” said Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), who’s up for reelection this year in a state where abortion will be on the ballot.
Schumer decided to bring the measure back up after former President Donald Trump came out in support of mandating insurance coverage for IVF treatments — a position that cuts against traditional GOP orthodoxy on health care policy. This is also one of the provisions in the Right to IVF Act.
“Republicans cannot claim to be pro-family on the one hand while then voting against IVF protection bills on the other,” Schumer said. “Americans are much smarter than that.”
Scott tried to pass his own IVF bill Monday night on the Senate floor, but Democrats blocked it. Republicans aren’t expected to do anything today that would drag out what they say is a sham process that’s not intended to reach an outcome. That means they’ll almost certainly block the IVF bill this afternoon rather than try to punch back at Democrats.
“If you get on [the bill], you don’t have any way to get amendments,” Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) said. “You’re just stuck there.”
Republican leaders said Schumer should be using the valuable floor time to pass the annual defense authorization bill or the FY2025 appropriations bills that have already been approved in committee.
Republican senators will have an opportunity to discuss how to handle the IVF vote later today during their weekly policy lunch. The vote is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. But GOP leaders are already setting expectations for how this will end.
“Everybody knows the outcome of this,” Senate Minority Whip John Thune said. “It would be in everybody’s best interest if we actually were doing the things that people expect us to be doing.”
— Andrew Desiderio
