Protecting Access to Ivf

Floor Speech

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Ms. WILD. Madam Speaker, before we begin, I want to take a moment to acknowledge that as of today, Florida's cruel and inhumane 6-week abortion ban has taken effect. Attacks on women's basic reproductive freedom have not and will not stop. While days like today are difficult, they also remind us of the stakes that we are facing in this fight.

I, for one, am proud to stand here and declare my unwavering support for reproductive freedom. When the Supreme Court took the cruel but unsurprising step to overturn Roe v. Wade, my heart broke for all the women whose basic reproductive freedom would now be in jeopardy.

As a mother, a lawyer who used to represent healthcare providers, and as a sitting Member of Congress, I have always believed that private medical decisions should be kept squarely between a woman and her healthcare provider.

After my immediate horror at the Dobbs decision faded, I started thinking about what other opportunities this would open up for far- right extremists to further control women's bodies and their healthcare decisions. It is why I worked hard with my staff in the year after Dobbs to draft and introduce the Access to Family Building Act, which would codify a right to in vitro fertilization and other assistive reproductive technologies at the Federal level, because I knew that extreme politicians, intent on controlling women's bodies, wouldn't stop at abortion rights. They were coming after all forms of reproductive healthcare.

One month after I introduced this bill on the House floor, the Alabama State Supreme Court made the heartbreaking and cruel decision to classify frozen embryos as children, throwing IVF patients and providers into a state of confusion and panic.

We heard it almost immediately. Clinics stopped doing the procedures at all. Women who were in the middle of an IVF treatment cycle literally had to just stop.

On the heels of the Alabama decision, more than 150 of my colleagues signed on as cosponsors of the bill. Numerous healthcare and advocacy organizations endorsed it, including the Military Family Association, and constituents across my community and throughout the country shared their own difficult fertility journeys.

As someone who struggled with infertility myself, I know how heartbreaking and expensive this process can be. I know for sure that politicians and courts should not have a say in how anyone chooses to start or grow their families.

Don't let anyone tell you that it is just rich career women seeking to defer their childbearing years who rely on IVF. Over the past several months, I have been in close contact with both veterans and cancer patients, men and women, by the way, who have spoken about their own IVF needs and their fears that this safe and reliable procedure may now be in jeopardy.

The reality is that these are the stakes that we are dealing with. The reason we are gathered here tonight is to shed light on additional pieces of legislation that some of our colleagues have introduced or supported, which, if enacted, could have the same repercussions as the Alabama decision.

It is important to note that not everyone on the other side of the aisle is aligned on this issue, and I applaud the handful of my Republican colleagues who have signed onto the Access to Building Families Act to protect IVF and other forms of reproductive assistance. However, there is a real and present threat that exists right here in Congress of extremists who have signaled their explicit intention to attack IVF and other forms of reproductive healthcare at the Federal level.

Make no mistake. Any of these national bans that have been talked about or proposed that would classify frozen embryos as children would supersede State-level protections thereby throwing IVF access into complete jeopardy nationwide. That includes a State like mine, Pennsylvania, which currently has no such restrictions.

A Federal ban would absolutely affect every woman and couple in Pennsylvania and throughout the country trying to start a family and experiencing infertility issues requiring them to avail themselves of these types of reproductive technologies.

That is why I am not going to stop fighting to protect it, and it is why I am proud to have received such overwhelming support for the Access to Family Building Act. I hope that we will soon be able to bring this to a vote on the House floor.

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