Sen. Ted Cruz’s latest attempt to make himself likable to Texas voters involves joining with Alabama Republican Sen. Katie Britt to introduce what they call “a Senate bill to clear up confusion after an Alabama Supreme Court ruling” on in vitro fertilization. The dubious duo’s Wall Street Journal op-ed comes after both of them refused to support a bill from Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth and other Democrats that would have done just that.
When the Senate Judiciary Committee was discussing that bill, Cruz insisted that federal protections of IVF aren’t necessary and that it is “indisputable” that “IVF is fully protected in law, it should be fully protected in law, and it will remain 100% fully protected in law.”
Democrats, he said, were only saying it is under threat because they “cannot defend their position on abortion.”
But now Cruz has changed his tune, tweeting Sunday: “Families across the U.S. are understandably worried that in vitro fertilization is under threat.”
“While the Alabama Legislature after the court’s decision promptly reiterated that IVF is protected, federal legislation would eliminate any ambiguity that might arise from future state-level judicial interpretations,” he added.
What happened to change Cruz’s mind? A very real challenge from Democrat Colin Allred, who’s been outpacing Cruz in fundraising.
It’s worth noting what is missing from the proposed legislation from Cruz and Britt: any real legal protections for IVF or an established right to seek assistive reproductive care. Instead, it would strip federal Medicaid money away from states that ban IVF, a “solution” that would hurt tens if not hundreds of thousands of people in those states.
That’s hardly a deterrent for the red states where IVF bans would be likely, since their lawmakers already don’t give a damn about people on Medicaid.
On the other hand, Duckworth and fellow Democrats offered in their bill a federal, statutory right to families to access IVF and other assistive reproductive services. Republicans have blocked it from consideration twice, once in 2022 and again in February of this year.
There was a great deal of lip service from the GOP—including Cruz and Britt—about how much they support IVF since the Alabama debacle. Cruz insisted back in February that he supports IVF because it is “entirely life affirming,” and says now that there is a “need to protect both life and access to IVF treatments.”
The only thing Cruz is fighting to protect is his reelection.
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