A day after the Southern Baptist Convention voted to oppose in vitro fertilization, making it the latest reproductive procedure pulled into the political debate, Alaska U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan and 45 other Republicans voted to block legislation protecting access to the procedure.
The measure is part of a larger slate of reproductive rights measures put forward by Senate Democrats heading into an election year and has once again highlighted the split between Alaska’s two Republican senators. Alaska U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, a longtime proponent of reproductive rights, was one of just two Republicans to support the measure.
The measure would have protected the right to access in vitro fertilizations and required coverage under Medicaid, marketplace plans and federal plans to cover the procedure. The 48-47 vote fell well short of the 60 needed to advance the measure.
It comes a week after Democrats also put forward a bill guaranteeing access to contraceptives, which Republicans also blocked. On that bill, Murkowski voted in favor while Sullivan skipped the vote.
While Murkowski and Sullivan are at odds on reproductive rights, they both endorsed a joint statement by all Senate Republicans that accused Democrats of orchestrating a “Summer of Scare Tactics” that overstates the threat to in vitro fertilization.
“A partisan campaign of false fearmongering intended to mislead and confuse the American people,” the statement reads. “In vitro fertilization is legal and available in every state across our nation. We strongly support continued nationwide access to IVF.”
However, recent rulings have proven otherwise. In a decision earlier this year, the Alabama Supreme Court extended personhood to embryos, exposing health care providers to legal liability for the destruction of embryos. The state legislature quickly passed a new measure to shield health providers from legal liability, but some health care groups say it doesn’t address the underlying issues and that providers could still be in legal jeopardy.
At a hearing earlier this year, Murkowski said that Alaskans’ access to reproductive health care was being hurt by national politics even though the state has a strong constitutional right to privacy that protects the right to an abortion.
“I will tell you I continue to hear from so many people in my state, women in Alaska, who are concerned about access to abortion and access to reproductive services even while we are a state where we have included in our state’s constitution a right to privacy that protects that access,” she said. “What we have seen from decisions across the country in the Lower 48 is a ripple effect that has come all the way up to the north … There are implications that move beyond those state boundaries.”
Matt Acuña Buxton is a long-time political reporter who has written for the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner and The Midnight Sun political blog. He also authors the daily politics newsletter, The Alaska Memo, and can frequently be found live-tweeting public meetings on Twitter.