Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas ) claimed that the committee was holding an IVF hearing because Democrats cannot support their position on abortion.
Legislators debating both abortion and in vitro fertilization ( IVF), a procedure that involves the fertilization of a human egg in a lab before being transferred to a woman’s uterus, during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing chaired by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill. ).
The Supreme Court’s decision in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization circumstance, which overturned the 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade, was the second in a series of trials discussing pregnancy issues since June 2022.
” Fallout of the Dobbs Decision has been devastating. People with nonviable, existence- disturbing babies have been denied access to medical care”, Mr. Durbin said in his opening speech.
” Those of us who support a woman’s right to physical independence must move up and put an end to this panic.” We must regard women’s right to create their own sexual health decisions. Will our Democratic colleagues, however, support authorized access to abortion and reproductive freedom and join us in this work?
Ranking Member Lindsey Graham ( R- S. C. ) responded in his opening statement.
You and others on your side have been in favor of national laws that would replace every existing state pro-life law with rules that wo n’t violate Roe v. Wade. According to Mr. Graham, there would be absolutely no restrictions on having an abortion.
” Socially, all the power on your side is to create America like China, North Korea, and Iran when it comes to pregnancy, where you’re going to have pregnancy virtually right up to the moment of conception with no exceptions at all. Most Americans reject that manner of thinking”.
Mr. Graham argued for a 15-week pregnancy cap, with exceptions for murder, adultery, and the mother’s life.
IVF Personhood Discussion
In a February decision, the Alabama Supreme Court declared that IVF-created embryos should be regarded as children.
For a scenario where couples sued an IVF company that frozen embryos that couples had created, the court had to consider that matter. Because giving newborn babies identity is something pro-life advocates have long desired, this choice has become a display point in the pregnancy debate.
Personhood poses a problem for the pro-choice movement because everyone viewed as a “person” do have rights.
” If you believe a fertilized egg is officially a man with all the same privileges as everybody here in this place, that harm IVF, prevention, and any medical treatment that may harm that fertilized egg, embryo, or fetus”, testified Lourdes Rivera, chairman of Pregnancy Justice in New York. During her evidence, she often referred to girls as expectant people.
” When an pro- abortion movement speaks about maternal and fetal identity, it is not about protecting babies. It is about controlling and punishing people, expectant people, and areas that are already marginalized”, Ms. Rivera said.
Sen. Tammy Duckworth ( D- Ill. ) has had a child through IVF.
” I am in a unique position to convince this council of a fundamental principle: we can appreciate the value of potential human existence, acknowledge the value of fertilized eggs, and we can also accept the fact that an embryo is not yet a human being,” said Ms. Duckworth. By defining person, individual be, child, and personal to only include “every newborn member of the species Homo sapiens who is born dead at any stage of development,” federal law correctly reflects this fact.
Many Republicans have come out in support of IVF, and Mr. Durban said he ca n’t understand that position.
How are you going to explain IVF if you think life begins at the moment of conception, if that is your premise for your policy and your law? In the end, there are going to be embryos that are n’t implanted, and something must have to happen to them.
Sen. Ted Cruz ( R- Texas ) called the hearing an act of political misdirection.
” There are sharp, passionate, emotional, personal disagreements on this issue that people rightly care very deeply about”, Mr. Cruz said. He called the Congress’s elected Democrats ‘ position on abortion wildly out of step with the American people.
Every Democrat in the Senate voted for legislation that would overturn every reasonable abortion ban that was put in place by every state in the country, he claimed. ” They would legalize abortion, up until the very moment of birth. They would legalize partial birth abortion. Every law requiring parental consent or notification would be struck down.
He claimed that IVF is fully protected by law and is in no danger of being outlawed because of the support of 100 percent of senators from both parties.
” The Democrats know this”, Mr. Cruz said. ” Understand why we’re holding an IVF hearing. The Democrats cannot support their position on abortion, but not because IVF is in danger.