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House Republican leaders ignored lobbying from some of their own members for a preelection vote on in vitro fertilization, even a symbolic defense of it — giving vulnerable GOP incumbents no political cover as Democrats yoke them to proposals that could imperil it.
GOP leaders avoided action on IVF after several of Speaker Mike Johnson’s swing-district members had pushed for a vote that would allow them to show their commitment to it. Even a member of Johnson’s leadership team acknowledged that an IVF vote would have benefited battleground-seat Republicans who are getting pummeled by Democratic charges that GOP control of Congress would threaten women’s access to the popular fertility treatment.
“We should bring it to the floor,” Rep. Lisa McClain, R-Mich., the House GOP secretary, told Semafor of pro-IVF proposals. Individual Republicans in tough races can be open with their IVF views, she said, but “it would probably help them more if [leaders] brought the bill up.”
The House GOP’s move sets up a stark contrast with both Senate Republicans, who blocked a Democratic IVF bill last week, and former President Donald Trump, who has called himself a “leader on fertilization.” Trump has even pitched a federal coverage guarantee for women seeking to conceive through IVF, going much further than the handful of House Republicans who have backed a symbolic GOP pro-IVF bill or a Democratic bill that would protect access to it.
Those vulnerable GOP lawmakers are now on an island defending their stance on a treatment that voters in both parties broadly support. Meanwhile, Vice President Kamala Harris launched an IVF ad this week, part of a broader Democratic push to connect the fertility treatment with abortion access and cast Republicans as dedicated to further restricting reproductive health care.
House Republican leadership has shown some deference to their own vulnerable members by not forcing them to vote on more restrictive anti-abortion bills that might otherwise get a GOP majority. But multiple Republican lawmakers told Semafor they had urged the speaker’s office to take up an IVF bill, showing that they see the lack of a vote as a missed opportunity.
“We’re advocating to get IVF codification on the floor. Obviously, not all my colleagues agree,” said New York Rep. Marc Molinaro, who this spring became the first Republican backer of a Democratic bill protecting IVF. Three of his vulnerable GOP colleagues later joined him.
Molinaro and other swing-district Republicans first got behind pro-IVF legislation more than six months ago after the Alabama Supreme Court put the treatment at risk by ruling that frozen embryos are children.
Another in that group, Rep. Lori Chavez-Deremer, R-Ore., said that she personally pushed the speaker to not call up a bill that would prohibit the use of any federal funds from on abortion care.
“Absolutely not. And it was because of me who said, ‘Do not put this on the floor. This is not what Americans want,’” she said.
Democrats, however, are hitting top Republicans hard for saying they support IVF while, in several high-profile cases, backing legislation that would put the treatment in potential jeopardy by effectively defining frozen embryos as people. Johnson, who has said he supports IVF but that “ethical” issues related to its use are up to the states to decide, signed onto such a bill last year.
“This is the future Trump wants for those wanting to expand their families,” the Democratic Party posted on X this week, with a link to the Harris pro-IVF ad.
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There’s some private hope among pro-IVF Republicans that Johnson might allow a vote on it during the post-election session, but the GOP would still face the same issue: a clear split among its members about how far to go in showing support for IVF, with a handful of conservatives opposed to it outright. Rep. Matt Rosendale, R-Mont., in particular has sounded off against the treatment as “morally wrong.”
Still, vulnerable House Republicans are getting some backup on IVF. Winning for Women, a right-of-center organization helping to elect conservative women, committed to a half-million dollar ad campaign focused on the issue. Rep. Michelle Steel spent nearly $300,000 on a pro-IVF campaign earlier this month, according to the media-tracking platform Big AL.
Molinaro matched that number with an ad centered around his support for women’s reproductive rights while mentioning he’s the first Republican to back a pro-IVF bill in the House.
Kadia’s view
Given the yawning gender gap between Trump and Harris in the presidential race, it’s no surprise that Democrats are working hard to communicate the GOP’s IVF split to voters. And Duarte has a point when he argues no one floor vote would provide enough cover to fully blunt that Democratic messaging.
Under those circumstances, the lack of a House vote on IVF this year effectively cedes ground to House Democrats who are eager to pick a fight on reproductive rights next year no matter who’s in the White House. If the GOP loses the majority, the same members who tried to avoid a tough IVF vote this year are going to have to swallow plenty of them in 2025.
Room for Disagreement
Not every swing-district Republican who’s backed pro-IVF legislation is convinced that a floor vote would help them counter Democratic campaign messaging on reproductive health care.
Rep. John Duarte, R-Calif., who’s signed onto Iowa GOP Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks’ bill that would establish tax credits for IVF, said Democrats “don’t care if we’re on record.”
“If it’s there, I’ll vote for it to protect IVF, but a lot of us are on record very clearly,” he said. “They’re gonna say what they’re gonna say.”
Notable
- Even some red-district House Republicans acknowledged that calling up an IVF vote before the election would have benefited their vulnerable colleagues, CNN reported.
- Several vulnerable House Republicans have openly wobbled on IVF as they try to court women voters, The New York Times reported.