Pray for an end to IVF and the protection of human embryos: Join our prayer pledge

WASHINGTON (LifeSiteNews) — Senate Democrats forced a vote on a defective bill to codify federal protections for in vitro fertilization (IVF) in an attempt to disingenuously cast Republicans in a bad light — as being unconcerned about helping couples struggling with fertility — during an election year.

The vote on the “Right to IVF Act” championed by Democrats, with no previous discussion in committee or compromise sought with Republicans, was seen as a brazen “political stunt,” nothing more than a “scare tactic.”

Forty-seven Republicans voted against the measure, leaving the bill far short of the 60 votes required for the legislation to move forward.

Democrats fully anticipated and even welcomed that outcome, according to a New York Times report.

“Protecting IVF should be the easiest ‘yes’ vote senators have taken all year,” said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat. “It is a contradiction to claim that you are pro-family but then turn around and block protections for IVF.”

READ: The pro-life movement must reject IVF to fully defend the lives of the unborn

President Joe Biden went much further, cynically using the defeat of the Democrats’ bill as an opportunity to criticize his political opponent, former President Donald Trump, and all those who support him.

“Donald Trump’s MAGA Republican allies voted against protecting access to fertility treatments for women who are desperately trying to get pregnant,” Biden said. “This is outrageous and unacceptable.”

“I will always defend a woman’s right to make these decisions for herself and her family,” he added.

Donald Trump’s MAGA Republican allies voted against protecting access to fertility treatments for women who are desperately trying to get pregnant.

This is outrageous and unacceptable.

I will always defend a woman’s right to make these decisions for herself and her family.

— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) June 13, 2024

Republicans found themselves on the defensive.

Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana said that Democrats were trying to “politicize a deeply personal issue for short-term political gain.”

“The only reason why they’re doing this is to try to scare people,” Sen. John Cornyn of Texas said.

“Senate Democrats have embraced a Summer of Scare Tactics — a partisan campaign of false fearmongering intended to mislead and confuse the American people,” said Sen. Ted Cruz, also a Texas Republican, in a joint statement with Republican Sen. Katie Britt of Alabama.

Cruz said that his Democrat colleagues “don’t want to provide reassurance and comfort to millions of parents in America because instead, they want to spend millions of dollars running campaign ads suggesting the big, bad Republicans want to take away IVF.”

In response to the move by Democrats, Cruz and Britt tried to quickly force a bill they had previously authored that would allow Medicaid funding to be withheld from states that ban IVF.

That effort also went down in flames.

READ: Sen. Ted Cruz introduces bill to create ‘federal right’ to embryo-destroying IVF

Both parties are wrong when it comes to supporting the IVF industry

The tension between Democrats and Republicans regarding IVF reveals how morally fraught the issue is, and both are willing to ignore or dismiss the evil associated with the procedure.

When couples or individuals choose to create children using IVF, many more eggs are fertilized than necessary as an insurance policy in case first attempts at successful pregnancies fail. Stored embryos deemed to be no longer necessary for the parents’ pursuit of a family – often numbering a dozen or more, and sometimes as many as 30 – are discarded as medical waste.

The IVF industry cannot survive without the killing of embryos. More to the point: The IVF industry cannot survive without the killing of 93 percent of children the process creates.

The simple fact is, IVF is opposed by the Catholic Church and many pro-lifers because it involves the deliberate destruction of innocent human life.

Further, IVF separates sex from procreation and can lead to eugenics, as some couples or single parents who buy sperm or eggs choose to abort embryos based on the possibility of future physical or mental disabilities.

Democrats and Republicans are both wrong to condone the procedure.

The Democrats’ bill goes “well beyond IVF,” noted Kristen Waggoner, president, CEO, and general counsel at the Alliance Defending Freedom. “It prohibits any limit on fertility treatments, jeopardizing commonsense protections for embryonic life, maternal health, and informed consent. States may be prohibited from regulating cloning and genetic editing, or any other reproductive technology.”

“The bill also refers to embryos as mere ‘reproductive genetic material,’ allowing for their indiscriminate destruction,” Waggoner said.

READ: Jailed pro-lifer Joan Andrews Bell urges Ted Cruz to reverse support for child-destroying IVF

“We must protect unborn life. And families struggling to conceive are worthy of support. But at the end of the day, the ‘Right to IVF Act’ serves only to enrich an unregulated and profit-driven industry, while endangering life at its earliest stages,” she added.

The Heritage Foundation’s Emma Waters, senior research associate in the Richard and Helen DeVos Center for Life, Religion, and Family, explained the problematic nature of the Republican-sponsored IVF Protection Act last month.

“In introducing this bill, Senator Cruz and Senator Britt are looking for ways to inoculate themselves against potential political attacks,” Waters wrote. “Rather than focusing on protections for parents undergoing infertility treatments, the IVF Protection Act boosts the global, multibillion-dollar fertility industry.”

“Republicans can and should be a pro-parent party that promotes life-affirming infertility care, rather than fall into thoughtless enthusiasm for Big Fertility,” she said.

“Cruz and Britt’s political folly lies in their uncritical focus on supporting the fertility industry, rather than the best interests of parents, women, and children,” Waters said. “It’s time for Republicans to recognize that the ground is shifting beneath their feet and regulate IVF according to the highest standard of medical and ethical care that prioritizes parents, not the profits of the self-regulated fertility industry.”

And despite Biden’s inferences to the contrary, Trump has vowed to support the IVF industry.

After the Alabama Supreme Court affirmed earlier this year that embryos are children — bringing an abrupt end to IVF procedures in the state — Trump roundly rejected the court’s finding, saying, “I strongly support the availability of IVF for couples who are trying to have a precious baby.”

Other self-identifying “MAGA” and “America First” Republicans joined Trump in criticizing the court and continue to pledge protections for the procedure that proves deadly to so many unborn lives.

Pray for an end to IVF and the protection of human embryos: Join our prayer pledge