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Floor Speech

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Mrs. MURRAY. Madam President, thank you to my colleagues from Illinois, from Nevada, and other Senators who are out here to fight for the right for women to have basic healthcare services in this country.

You know, I have said before that Republican attacks on reproductive freedom would never stop with Roe. They would never stop with abortion. I have said before that IVF was at risk, and now it has been so heartbreaking to see that warning become a gut-wrenching reality for women in Alabama.

And it is absolutely infuriating to see some of the same Republicans who support so-called fetal personhood bills, who want to codify the very ideology in the Alabama Supreme Court decision that ripped away access to IVF care, suddenly acting surprised, suddenly acting like they had no idea this would happen, suddenly acting like this was totally unforeseen, when it is exactly what we have been warning about and exactly what the far right has been working toward for decades. This isn't some surprise. The Alabama Supreme Court decision is Republican ideology in action.

So spare me the empty statements, especially after the objection that we just saw here. Unless you are actually going to work with us to protect IVF, save your breath. There are women in Alabama who desperately want to start a family, women who have tried for years to get pregnant, women who have gone through the heartbreak of miscarriage, women who are battling cancer and other devastating diagnoses for whom IVF is the only way they will be able to have children. And now, after everything they have been through--the hope, the disappointment, the thousands--the even tens of thousands of dollars it can cost to pursue IVF--after all that, these women have had their dreams shattered because Republicans believe a frozen embryo kept in storage at an IVF clinic is the same and should have the exact same rights as a living, breathing human person.

That is not hyperbole. That is not hypothetical. That is what is happening. You don't have to imagine how painful this is. You just have to listen to the women in Alabama who have had their worlds turned upside down now by this decision.

Meghan Cole has a rare blood disease that prevents her from carrying children. Her hopes of starting a family through IVF and a surrogate were dashed last week when her doctor called to cancel her Friday appointment. She asked about transferring the embryos out of the State. Even that door has been slammed shut to her.

Jasmine York turned to IVF after previous ectopic pregnancies left her with no other options to have a baby. Now Alabama has left her with no options at all. As she said, ``It's completely just derailed a lot of hope.''

Kayla Lee spent 9 years and $80,000 trying to have a child. She has gone through several miscarriages, and she was days away--days away-- from getting a viable embryo transferred. But instead of getting that embryo transplanted, she got the same heartbreaking phone call. Her hopes of a family were being put on hold. Years of trying, tens of thousands of dollars, and, at the last moment, Republicans pulled the rug out from under her.

Even families who already have gone through IVF are facing the fallout. Can they afford to pay and store unused embryos indefinitely? Can they be prosecuted if they don't? They don't know. Right now, no one knows.

The anger, the anguish, the stories of these women are heartbreaking.

As IVF patient Kelly Belmont put it, ``We've already invested so much time and money and just physical and emotional anguish into this process, and to think that it could have all been for nothing and that we could be ending our journey to be able to have children--it's absolutely terrifying. I am just trying to hold myself together emotionally.''

So powerful. I don't know how anyone can listen to these stories and still think politicians should be making women's healthcare decisions for them. I really don't.

Now, I said earlier that Republicans are acting surprised now by the result of the very policies they have pushed for. They can save their breath. That is because actions speak louder than words, and many of the same Republicans saying they care now about IVF are literally right now cosponsors of legislation that would enshrine fetal personhood into law and make IVF unavailable nationwide.

You cannot support IVF and support fetal personhood laws. They are fundamentally incompatible.

Instead of empty words, Democrats want to see action, and that is why we just tried to pass the Access to Family Building Act. It doesn't get any more straightforward than that, and yet, just now, Republicans blocked the bill and showed their true colors when it comes to IVF.

I am frustrated, but I am not done fighting because I know Americans are watching, and they will not forget who is standing with families in Alabama and across the country and who is standing in their way.

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