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Floor Speech

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Mr. KAINE. Madam President, the first child born in vitro in the United States was Elizabeth Carr, and she was born in Norfolk, VA, in 1981. Elizabeth's parents were Massachusetts residents. They struggled with infertility, and their dream was to have a child. Yet it was not to be--until they heard about a husband-and-wife team, Howard and Georgeanna Jones, who had been reproductive physicians at Johns Hopkins and then went to England to train with the early pioneer of in vitro fertilization, and they came back to the United States wanting to open a clinic to help couples deal with fertility issues. It must have been a hard road for them to find a place that said yes because this seemed like science fiction at the time, but the Eastern Virginia Medical School in Norfolk said: Open a fertility clinic here.

I was 23 years old then, and in my memory, there was something about it on the cover of Newsweek. I have gone back and realized, no, it was Life magazine. Because it seemed like science fiction. The science is so hard to even wrap your head around, and yet the Carrs read about this, and they started to travel--they were not people with much money--they started to travel to Norfolk and became patients of the two doctors, and their daughter Elizabeth was born in Virginia in 1981. She is 42 years old today. She is raising her own family today.

Elizabeth has been followed--wrap your head around this: What seemed like unimaginable science fiction in 1981, there are now, by best estimates, 12 million people walking this planet who were born by IVF, living their lives, being happy, raising families, contributing to their communities--12 million people. What could be more pro-life than in vitro fertilization? Twelve million people.

Elizabeth was interviewed 2 days ago by WBUR, a public radio and television station in Boston. Here is what she said. She talked about her life and what she is doing, and then she said this, very chillingly: ``For the first time in my life, I feel like an endangered species.''

``I feel like an endangered species.''

I think many of us believed that the Dobbs decision--and we made predictions about it--was not fundamentally about pro-life; it was about control. It was about control of women's decisions with respect to abortion, with respect to contraception, and now with respect to deciding: If there is a path out of infertility, I can have a child. They want to control that too. That is what the Alabama Supreme Court has done, and that is what Dobbs was about, and that is why I am proud to sign on to the bill led by Senator Duckworth, the Access to Family Building Act. It is as simple a bill as can be. Healthcare providers have a right to provide fertility treatment, including in vitro services. Patients have a right to access fertility treatment, including in vitro fertilization services.

This is not a mandate. The enforcement provisions are provisions that allow a person or a healthcare provider to bring action against the State or governmental entity that tries to interfere with the right that they have. No State should interfere with this right--none.

This is a very simple bill that would enable the Elizabeth Carrs of the world to continue to be born and to continue to live happy and productive lives. I am so glad to be a cosponsor.

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