Duckworth: GOP puts rights of an egg ‘over the rights of the woman’ with IVF ruling

Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) denounced the GOP response to an Alabama Supreme Court decision last week restricting in vitro fertilization (IVF), calling Republicans’ reactions disingenuous and part of the party’s efforts to limit women’s reproductive rights.

The ruling handed down Monday classifies fertilized embryos as children, meaning failed IVF procedures could result in criminal charges for hospitals and doctors. Multiple major Alabama hospitals have stopped offering IVF because of the decision.

“I’m devastated for all those families that are trying to start families but I was not at all surprised,” Duckworth told Martha Raddatz in an ABC “This Week” interview on Sunday.

“Republicans have put the rights of a fertilized egg over the rights of the woman,” she continued. “And that is not something that I think the American people agree with.”

Duckworth herself used IVF to have her two daughters, now nine and five years old. 

The senator has repeatedly introduced a bill in the Senate to protect IVF treatment federally. She said there has been no GOP support, even after the GOP Senate campaign arm called on candidates to reject attempts to regulate access to the procedure.

“It’s been crickets since the Alabama ruling,” she said. “Let’s make it clear, Republicans will say whatever they need to say to try to cover themselves on this, but they’ve been clear, and Donald Trump has been the guy leading this effort to eliminate women’s reproductive rights and reproductive choice.”

President Biden denounced last week’s court decision as “outrageous and unacceptable.”

“Today, in 2024 in America, women are being turned away from emergency rooms and forced to travel hundreds of miles for health care, while doctors fear prosecution for providing an abortion,” Biden said in a statement. “And now, a court in Alabama put access to some fertility treatments at risk for families who are desperately trying to get pregnant. The disregard for women’s ability to make these decisions for themselves and their families is outrageous and unacceptable.

“Make no mistake: this is a direct result of the overturning of Roe v. Wade,” Biden added.