Senate Democrats have demonstrated this summer that they have not abandoned their crusade to force American taxpayers to fund the genetic testing, freezing and discarding of human beings.
Back in 2024, they brought up the Right to IVF Act twice.
This act defined "fertility treatment" as including the "[p]reservation of human oocytes, sperm, or embryos for later reproductive use" and the "[g]enetic testing of embryos." It then declared, as explained in its summary, that "individuals have the right to access fertility treatments and to make decisions about the use of their reproductive genetic material (e.g., embryos) without limitation or interference."
It also said that "the bill provides for coverage of fertility treatments under Medicare and Medicaid and for members of the uniformed services and veterans."
Additionally, it required "private insurers that cover obstetrical services to also cover fertility treatments."
Were this bill to become law, in other words, there would be no way for an American who has health insurance or pays federal taxes to escape from subsidizing a procedure that results in the genetic testing, freezing and discarding of human beings.
Then-Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) brought this bill to the Senate floor on June 13, 2024. "The Right to IVF Act is common sense and necessary," he said. "Republicans cannot say they are pro-family and then vote against protecting IVF."
Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.) gave her party's explanation of it. "Our bill is straightforward in its purpose," she said. "It would establish a clear and enforceable nationwide right for people to receive IVF, for doctors to provide IVF, and for health insurance to cover IVF.
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"So, if you live in a state where a Republican state legislature passes a law infringing on IVF, that would be stopped by our bill," she said. "If you get your health insurance through your employer, your health insurance would cover your care. If you are a service member or veteran ... you are covered -- same for federal employees. And if you get your health insurance through Medicaid, which covers 40 percent of the births in this country, you are covered."
The bill needed 60 votes that day to achieve cloture and move forward to a substantive vote. It only got 48. Senators Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) were the only Republicans to vote for it. No Democrat voted against it.
On Sept. 17, 2024, Schumer brought the Right to IVF Act up for another cloture vote. That day, it got only 51 of the 60 votes needed. Collins and Murkowski were again the only Republicans to vote for it -- and, again, no Democrat voted against it.
The Democrats lost their Senate majority in the November 2024 elections - but not their desire to force taxpayers to fund IVF and thus the genetic testing, freezing and discarding of human beings.
On July 23, Schumer joined fellow Democrat Senators Cory Booker (N.J.), Patty Murray (Wash.) and Tammy Duckworth (Ill.) in introducing the Access to Fertility Treatment and Care Act. Like the Right to IVF Act, it would require Medicaid and private health insurance to cover in vitro fertilization procedures that specifically include the "[p]reservation of human ... embryos" and the "[g]enetic testing of embryos."
"I will keep fighting to protect access to affordable health care and am proud to support this legislation which offers hope and opportunity to many with this deeply personal decision," said Schumer.
The American Society for Reproductive Medicine, as this column has noted before, has published a booklet explaining how an IVF procedure is conducted.
"IVF is a method of assisted reproduction in which a man's sperm and a woman's eggs are combined outside of the body in a laboratory dish," it says.
"One or more fertilized eggs (embryos) may be transferred into the woman's uterus, where they may implant in the uterine lining and develop," it says.
What about those that are not transferred to the mother's womb?
"Excess embryos," the ASRM booklet explains, "may be cryopreserved (frozen) for future use."
These newly conceived human beings who have been created for an IVF procedure may also undergo a eugenic screening. "Preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) is a form of prenatal diagnosis that is performed on early embryos created by in vitro fertilization," explains an article published in the Journal of Clinical Medicine that this column has quoted before.
"It is solely a diagnostic procedure," says the journal article, "that can identify whether a specific embryo carries a single gene disorder for which the couple is at-risk or a chromosome abnormality that could lead to either failed implantation, subsequent miscarriage or the birth of a child with physical and/or developmental disability."
It also identifies the sex of the embryo.
After PGD has been conducted on these human beings conceived in a laboratory dish, the parents can choose which one to bring forward toward birth -- based on their sex and lack of a genetic disorder.
The rest can be discarded or frozen. "Estimates place the number of frozen embryos at greater than 1.5 million," the Journal of Fertility and Sterility reported in its March 2022 edition.
The Democrats in the Senate not only want more of this, they want to make American taxpayers pay for it.
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