Republican extremism threatening reproductive rights and IVF is spreading across the country
WASHINGTON — Yesterday, Iowa House Republicans passed a dangerous personhood bill – effectively criminalizing the death of a fetus despite concerns about how it might threaten access to in vitro fertilization and contraception. This follows the dangerous Alabama Supreme Court ruling that frozen embryos can be considered children.
Before Alabama Republican Senator Katie Britt claimed that Republicans supported access to IVF in her response to the State of the Union, Iowa House Republicans passed the most dangerous threat to IVF since the Alabama Supreme Court’s initial ruling. They aren’t alone: in ongoing 2024 legislative sessions, Republican bills to establish fetal personhood have been introduced in at least 14 states.
This Iowa bill, already passed by the House, represents the biggest threat to IVF we’ve had since the Alabama ruling, but it won’t be the last.
A reminder: Republican attacks on reproductive rights and freedoms are on the rise and what happens in one state can often spread across the country quickly.
The only way to protect IVF and other fundamental freedoms in this country is to elect Democrats to state legislatures all across America.
Iowa House Democratic Leader and DLCC Board Member Jennifer Konfrst issued the following statement:
“Iowa Republicans will stop at nothing to ban abortion, even if it means criminalizing people undergoing IVF treatments. The Alabama-style bill Republican politicians passed this week goes too far and Iowans are tired of politicians taking away their reproductive freedom.
“It’s simple: everyone deserves the right to make their own health care decisions and politicians have no place interfering in someone else’s decisions about when to start a family.
“It’s time to put people over politics.”
Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee President Heather Williams issued the following statement:
“In a country full of Republican legislators trying to outdo each other in rolling back fundamental freedoms, this Iowa bill shows that what happened in Alabama last month doesn’t just stay in one state. Protections for IVF and other reproductive freedoms should be the law of the land. Once again, Republicans aren’t slowing down with their attacks on women and reproductive rights. The best way to stop these attacks in 2024 is to build Democratic power in the states that will protect reproductive rights and family planning for every American. Our fundamental freedoms rely on it.”
The Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee (DLCC) is the official Democratic Party committee dedicated to winning America’s state legislatures and building state infrastructure. Over the last decade, we have fought cycle-over-cycle to gain a dozen new legislative chamber majorities and we are leading the effort to bring national attention and investment to our ballot level. State legislatures are the building blocks of our democracy and have the closest connections to Americans’ day-to-day lives. From protecting fundamental freedoms and voting rights to growing the middle class, the DLCC and state legislators are moving the Democratic agenda forward and shaping the future of this country.
###
