(NewsNation) — Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, has introduced a bill he says would protect in vitro fertilization.
“This bill is designed to create a federal right — a federal protection to IVF,” Cruz told NewsNation’s “On Balance.”
The bill from Cruz and Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., would cut Medicaid funding to any state that bans IVF, while also ensuring that organizations or health care providers within states aren’t required to provide access.
Cruz says he hopes his bill will cut across the aisle.
“To the best of my knowledge, all 100 senators agree that IVF is important,” he said. “It needs to be protected. This should be something we can be bipartisan on and come together and say, ‘Look, this is shared ground.’”
While Cruz noted that, “Right now, there are no states I know of that want to ban IVF,” at least 13 state legislatures are considering “personhood” bills, which define life as beginning at conception.
IVF usually requires more than one embryo to achieve pregnancy, and the unused embryos are often discarded. Personhood laws would therefore essentially outlaw IVF.
The Cruz measure would not restrict states’ abilities to set “health and safety” measures, which one Democrat says is as good as a ban.
“This bill would still allow Republicans to heavily restrict IVF in every state,” said Joe Jacobson, founder of the Progress Action Fund, which produces hard-hitting ads attacking Republican candidates on their reproductive rights positions. “This happened with Roe, where Republicans were able to use loopholes to restrict abortion,” he said.
The bill from Cruz and Britt comes after February’s ruling by the Alabama Supreme Court, which found that embryos are children, and therefore protected under the state’s wrongful death laws.
IVF is “incredibly pro-family,” Cruz said in an interview with Bloomberg News on Monday. “Our bill is very simple and it’s very focused, and it’s designed to protect IVF.”