This morning, Harris-Walz 2024 hosted a press call featuring Campaign Manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez, Senator Tammy Duckworth, Senator Debbie Stabenow, and Wisconsin IVF father Steven Miller on Donald Trump and JD Vance’s attacks on IVF access on the day of the Senate’s vote to protect this essential resource for families.
When Trump overturned Roe, he unleashed attacks on reproductive care, including IVF access, across the country. Because of Trump, American parents have lost access to the resources they need to start and grow the families of their dreams. Trump’s own platform – linked on his campaign website – could effectively ban IVF in states nationwide.
JD Vance will miss today’s vote after voting against protections for IVF access last time it was on the floor. Vance previously made headlines for disparaging “childless” women and demeaning couples struggling with infertility.
Read highlights from the press call below:
“Make no mistake, Donald Trump overturning Roe v Wade is the very reason we need to vote to protect IVF, and he brags about it. He brags about the nightmare he created that leaves women and their families at the whims of his extreme allies. That’s exactly what voters saw last week on the debate stage, and what ended up being Donald Trump’s worst testing moment of the entire night. For so many Americans, IVF isn’t just a medical procedure, it’s hope. Hope for families struggling with infertility, hope for couples who need assistance starting their families. Hope for people dealing with medical complications who might otherwise never have the chance to become parents,” said Julie Chavez Rodriguez. “So while Donald Trump and JD Vance are off spreading conspiracy theories, or taking another opportunity to insult childless women and couples struggling with fertility, Kamala Harris is fighting for all of our freedoms, all of our families and our access to health care.”
“In the nearly two years since that horrific Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe, American families have lived in the consequences of this anti-freedom crusade that puts IVF at risk for millions of Americans. States like Alabama have seen clinics shut down and women forced to ship their embryos out of state because of what Donald Trump did. This is what Donald Trump and JD Vance believe. I can’t imagine having gone through my IVF journey under the extreme, restrictive laws that Donald Trump made possible. If a version of the Alabama Supreme Court ruling had been in place, I might have been forced to implant non-viable embryos, suffering through more miscarriages, or risk me or my doctor being convicted of manslaughter for discarding those non viable embryos” said Senator Tammy Duckworth. “So I’m not going to sit quietly while Donald Trump and JD Vance run on a platform that would threaten access to IVF, because every American deserves a right to be called mommy or daddy without being treated like a criminal. Families in Ohio deserve better. Families across this country deserve better.”
“It takes, as you know, 60 votes to be able to move forward on this, and so we certainly welcome having enough Republican colleagues to join us. That would be great, but we don’t have any indication that’s going to happen. I will say that there’s no way in the world that I believe that Donald Trump is serious about this. This is a guy who is trapped in his own decisions to rip away abortion services and reproductive freedom with his decisions, as it related to the Supreme Court and Project 2025, and other things that he said. So he’s scrambling, that’s what he always does,” said Senator Debbie Stabenow. “I’m not sure he even knows what IVF is, and there’s no way that I believe that he is serious about doing this. It’d be great if he was, and the way to find out if he’s serious, was he on the phone last night calling our colleagues urging them to vote yes? Just like he was on the phone last weekend urging the US House to shut the government down? Just like he was on the phone telling people to vote against the effective border bill? If he was on the phone last night urging people to vote yes, then I’ll take him seriously.”
“There’s a lot of men out there that are in the same situation, and I can’t imagine not having the choice to be able to pursue IVF. IVF is a pro-family, scientific way to achieve that dream. IVF is not playing God. It’s not playing, you know, any of that stuff. And as a Christian believer, that’s, you know, IVF was a choice that we had made for our family. So I’m committed to making sure that families like mine in Wisconsin and across our country can do the same, despite the attacks by Donald Trump and JD Vance and their extreme allies,” said Steven Miller. “It’s no surprise to me that JD Vance couldn’t be bothered to show up for it for today’s vote. We know he voted against IVF access last time — the last time he had a chance — and just like Donald Trump, appointed an anti-IVF judge to the federal bench as President. Vance loves to talk about family values, and has plenty of time to degrade childless people in the press, but when it comes to real actions to support families’ access to IVF, he’s not just missing in action—he’s working with his Project 2025 allies to undermine our families’ rights to make their own health care decisions.”
