IVF support bill fails in Congress despite Trump's support
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STORY: A U.S. Senate bill to provide federal protections and expand insurance coverage for fertility treatments failed on Tuesday. Republicans voted against it, despite Donald Trump recently expressing support for the policy. The bill was defeated 51-44, missing the 60 votes needed, as most Republicans opposed it for the second time. Democrats hold a narrow 51-49 majority in the Senate. The bill’s sponsor, Democratic Senator Tammy Duckworth, first sought a vote in February. That was after Alabama's Supreme Court ruled that IVF embryos should be considered children, endangering access to the treatment. “Freedom to get reproductive care is at risk for millions of other women whose most desperate hope in the world is to have a little one of their own.” “Republicans only seem to care about protecting life when it supposedly consists of some cells in a medical lab freezer." In August, Donald Trump said he would make the government or insurance cover IVF if elected, surprising some Republicans who find the treatment controversial. "We want to produce babies in this country, right? We want to produce babies." "For IVF... and I've been looking at it and what we're going to do is for people that are using IVF, which is fertilization, we are, the government... Government is going to pay for it, or we're going to get or mandate your insurance company to pay for it, which is going to be great. We're going to do that." Trump's campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.
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