Republicans on Tuesday blocked a bill that would have created a right to access in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatments and mandated that insurance plans cover the practice, deriding the vote as a political ploy.

Senators voted against advancing the bill, 51-44, marking the second time Democrats have sought to put Republicans on the record on the contentious issue. Sixty votes were needed to open debate on the measure.

Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) voted with every Democrat and independent.

Sens. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Joe Manchin (I-W.Va.), Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) and Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) did not vote.

GOP senators derided the Democratic legislation, authored by Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), as nothing more than a show vote, accusing Democrats of misrepresenting Republicans’ views on IVF.

Ahead of the vote, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) tried to pass via voice vote a competing bill he and Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.) introduced earlier this year that would withhold Medicaid funding from states that ban IVF, but it was blocked by Democrats.

I was 100% expecting them to do this, but I am nonetheless happy that the Nationalist Christians are engaging in this level of political self-sabotage.

I thought the orange man was supposed to be a leader in fertilization.

lol. Idiots. Bring on President Harris.

Of course they do they don’t care anything for IVF them frauds.

When people show you who they are, believe them.

The next time they bitch and moan about “the decline of the birth rate”, just show this to them and say nothing.

WTF Corey Booker? It wouldn’t have mattered but now he’s on record as “not caring.”

Unless he has a good reason. A very good one

Not American, or really knowledgeable about it but from the outside, I think this looks like ordinary politicking.

IVF is a proxy war for abortion. Dems want the talking point that abortion bans hurt/block IVF. Republicans/Trump want to remove that talking point by saying they love IVF “we want more babies right?” and will support laws to protect it as a separate and unrelated issue to abortion.

Dems put forward a bill that not only protects it but makes insurance companies pay for it. Trump is fine with that because it benefits him but Republicans in Congress get big money from insurance lobbyists and so they can’t vote for it. They also have fears that they’ll piss off their homophobic supporters by making them pay for something the gays might use (insurance costs will go up to help someone who isn’t me!").

Republicans put forward another bill that protects IVF without hurting their insurance company buddies but the Dems block it. Republicans then have to vote against the IVF bill and the Dems can now say “see! They really don’t care about reproductive rights at all!”

Feels a bit like nobody involved actually cares about IVF at all and just wants votes and lobbyist money.

In case this take comes across too centrist: Republicans and Trump are really quite shit.

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