“This resolution takes an ‘anything goes’ approach and completely ignores that the families who filed the Alabama lawsuit did so because they saw their embryos as their children who were recklessly destroyed,” the spokesperson told CNA. “The Mace resolution leaves no room for reasonable laws like the one in Louisiana that for decades has protected embryos while also allowing IVF. In fact, there are more babies born through IVF in Louisiana than in Alabama.”
SBA’s scorecard, which grades a lawmaker’s fidelity to pro-life causes, gives Mace a “D,” but Cammack has an “A+.”
A top-down push to get Republicans on board
Following the Alabama ruling, some Republican Party leaders are pushing Republican lawmakers and candidates to embrace IVF.
Jason Thielman, the executive director of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, sent a memo to Republican Senate candidates late last week, claiming “there are zero Republican Senate candidates who support efforts to restrict access to fertility treatments” such as IVF and urging them to embrace pro-IVF messaging.
“Clearly state your support for IVF and fertility-related services as blessings for those seeking to have children,” Theilman recommended.
The memo further suggested that candidates “publicly oppose any efforts to restrict IVF” and “campaign on increased access.” It added: “It is imperative that our candidates align with the public’s overwhelming support for IVF and fertility treatments.”
Several Republican Senate candidates followed suit and have come out in favor of IVF procedures, including Tim Sheehy in Montana, Kari Lake in Arizona, and Bernie Moreno in Ohio. Current Republican senators, such as Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, have similarly voiced their support for IVF.
The Congressional Leadership Fund, the largest political action committee supporting Republican House candidates, similarly pushed lawmakers to support IVF.
“It’s useful and important for swing district Republicans to show empathy, sympathy and clearly voice support for consensus positions like IVF,” Congressional Leadership Fund President Dan Conston said, according to Reuters.
The former president and leading candidate to be the 2024 Republican nominee, Donald Trump, also backed IVF and encouraged Republican lawmakers to do the same.
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“We want to make it easier for mothers and fathers to have babies, not harder,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social. “That includes supporting the availability of fertility treatments like IVF in every state in America.”
There has not been much pushback to this messaging from within the Republican Party.
Some lawmakers who are backing IVF are also cosponsors of the Life at Conception Act. The legislation, which has 125 cosponsors in the House, would recognize the personhood of every human from the moment of fertilization. The House version of the bill introduced last year does not include an exemption for preborn children created through IVF, which highlights an apparent contradiction between the two positions.
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