(NewsReady.com) – A liberal senator is complaining that Republicans voted against a Democratic bill that would have protected the right of women to have in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment. Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) slammed her GOP colleagues for blocking the proposed law. However, her argument would be more convincing if Senate Democrats hadn’t blocked a similar Republican bill just one day earlier.
In May two Republican senators, Katie Britt (R-AL) and Ted Cruz (R-TX), put forward a bill that would have cut off Medicaid funding to states that outlaw IVF. On June 12, Senate Democrats blocked that bill, and then, the next day, they pushed their own pro-IVF bill to a vote. The Right to IVF Act, sponsored by Senators Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) and Cory Booker (D-NJ), would have needed nine Republicans to vote with the Democrats to pass. However, with GOP senators angered by the previous day’s blocking action, only Susan Collins (R-ME) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) broke ranks. The bill, which needed 60 votes to progress, only got 48.
Following the failed vote, Klobuchar spoke to CNN’s Kaitlan Collins about what happened. She highlighted the benefits of IVF, talking about two women from her state who had children thanks to the treatment, and pointed out that eight million children in the US were born through IVF. Then she went on to blame Republicans for the lack of a legal right to it; she said that if Republicans want IVF legally protected, “don’t just talk about it. Do it.”
Senator Britt, meanwhile, accused Democrats of “fearmongering” over the bill she and Cruz put forward. Speaking in the Senate after the bill was blocked, she said the Liberals’ “true goal” was pushing their own partisan agenda. The Democratic IVF bill was one of several linked to reproductive rights the party has pushed recently.
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