The move sets up a showdown as Republicans are expected to block the effort.
At a press conference flanked by her co-sponsors, Duckworth said she will ask for unanimous consent Wednesday for the Senate to pass the bill, which would establish a federal right to IVF and other fertility treatments that are at risk in the post-Roe era.
Under unanimous consent, any one senator can object to moving the bill forward. Duckworth tried to call for unanimous consent to pass the bill in 2022, but Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.) blocked it without explanation.
“I warned that red states would come for IVF, and now they have. But they aren’t going to just going to stop in Alabama,” Duckworth said. “Mark my words: If we don’t act now, it will only get worse.”
The bill was first introduced in 2022 and then reintroduced last month. It would guarantee a right to IVF as it is currently practiced, no matter which state a person lives in. It has no Republican co-sponsors.
“If you truly care about the sanctity of families, and you’re genuinely actually honestly interested in protecting IVF, then you need to show it by not blocking this bill on the floor tomorrow. It’s that simple,” Duckworth said.
The push from Duckworth comes as Democrats vow to make IVF a campaign issue as they continue to squeeze Republicans on the fallout of overturning Roe v. Wade.
After the ruling, many Republicans raced to distance themselves from it, and the Senate GOP campaign arm called on candidates to reject attempts to regulate access to the procedure.
But a key practice in modern IVF treatments is to fertilize multiple embryos at once while only implanting one, and it is routine practice to discard nonviable or excess embryos.
And many of the same Republicans have co-sponsored legislation that declares life begins at conception, without any exclusion for IVF. If enacted, the legislation would likely upend how IVF is practiced.
