By Mark Glennon | Wirepoints
Can we please focus on issues instead of antics?
Last week, Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) grabbed headlines and press around the country as a vocal critic of supposed Republican efforts to ban IVF — in vitro fertilization. That was after Senate Republicans blocked a bill she sponsored making access to IVF a federal right.
But it was all a stunt. It’s a non-issue. There’s no effort or meaningful political support anywhere to ban IVF.
Duckworth manufactured the issue with the most hyperbolic language available. “Our nation has seen the horrific consequences of Republicans’ anti-science, anti-woman crusade that has put IVF at risk for millions of Americans who rely on it to start or grow their family,” Duckworth said. “Despicable,” she said of the Republican response to her bill.
In truth, all Senate Republicans had signed an open letter saying they “strongly support continued nationwide access to IVF and offered their own bill protecting IVF. Senate Democrats, including Duckworth, blocked that Republican bill.
Some religious groups have expressed moral objections to IVF, but the only significant officeholders to have done so are four U.S. House members, including Illinois Rep. Mary Miller, who signed a letter to that effect in March. Their letter was ignored. Even in Alabama, where a court initially interpreted that state’s abortion ban as an IVF prohibition, state lawmakers promptly acted to override the ruling. Eighty-two percent of Americans support IVF, according to a recent Gallup poll, and crossing them would be political suicide for any party in any state.
In truth, both the Democratic and Republican bills were subject to reasonable criticisms.
Read on here.
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