WASHINGTON — The Senate failed again Tuesday to advance legislation that would protect access to in vitro fertilization, the latest partisan battle over reproductive health care amid the 2024 presidential election.
The 51-44 vote on the Right to IVF Act, which would bar state restrictions on the procedure and require insurance coverage, fell short of the 60 votes needed to pass, just as it did in June — and as Democrats expected it would. For them, the vote put many Senate Republicans on the record again as seemingly opposing broad IVF access and delivered new attack lines for an election that many see as a referendum on reproductive rights.
Two Republicans, Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowksi and Maine Sen. Susan Collins, joined Democrats to support the bill this week, as they had three months ago. The majority of their caucus repeated arguments that the bill is Democrats’ ploy to score political points and that there is no threat to IVF access.
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