[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 36 (Wednesday, February 28, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1032-S1033]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                     Access to Family Building Act

  Ms. DUCKWORTH. Madam President, I have been called a lot of names in 
my life: ``Tammy,'' ``Lieutenant Colonel,'' ``Senator,'' and a couple 
others I shouldn't mention in polite company.
  ``Mommy,'' though, is, without a doubt, my favorite name. It is the 
one my 5-year-old uses when she runs into the house after dance class 
and pulls on my sleeve, eager to show me what she learned during her 
lesson.
  It is the one my 9-year-old says when she announces her latest life 
plan. When she was little, she wanted to grow up to be a garbage 
collector; now, she is leaning towards being an Army cyber warrior.
  My girls are my everything. But they, likely, would have never been 
born if I hadn't had access to the basic reproductive rights that 
Americans--up until recently--had been depending on for nearly a half 
century, because after a decade struggling with infertility after my 
service in Iraq, I was only able to get pregnant through the miracle of 
IVF.
  IVF is the reason I get to experience the chaos and the beauty, the 
stress and the joy that is motherhood. IVF is the reason that my 
husband and I aren't just Tammy and Bryan but we are ``Mom'' and 
``Dad.'' IVF made our family. It made my heart whole. It made my life 
full.
  But for countless women in Alabama, that desperately sought-after 
dream of becoming a mom just became so much harder. Last week, that 
State's supreme court ruled that frozen embryos created through IVF 
should be considered children under State law--a ruling that paints 
women like me and our doctors as criminals and one that throws IVF 
access into chaos as countless women and doctors try to figure out 
whether they might be criminalized for simply trying to create a 
family.
  If you are thinking that this makes no sense, you are right. You are 
not misunderstanding anything; you are not missing something. It is the 
nightmarish blend of hypocrisy and misogyny that you think it is.
  The very people who claim to be defending family values are the ones 
trying to enact dystopian policies that would prevent Americans from 
starting their own families.
  This is no longer a hypothetical worst-case scenario. IVF providers 
around the State have already paused treatments out of fear that their 
doctors and patients could be punished.
  Organizations that transport embryos to and from medical facilities 
in Alabama have already announced that they will stop doing so, meaning 
that would-be parents there won't even be able to start their families 
in any other States either.
  And now that the first domino has fallen, it seems like it could only 
be a matter of time before more hospitals and more organizations make 
the same call, before more State courts issue similar rulings, before 
more extremist politicians succeed in enacting even more draconian laws 
nationwide.
  Think about that. Think about what is at stake if State courts simply 
can strip away access to IVF. Think about how many would-be moms might 
never be able to hear their child's first little gurgle of a laugh. 
Think about how many hopeful dads might never be able to play tooth 
fairy when his would-be daughter loses her first tooth.
  You know, I lived in Alabama for a bit when I was in the Army, 
stationed at what is now called Fort Novosel. And I didn't know it at 
the time, but infertility would become one of the most heartbreaking 
struggles of my life, my miscarriage more painful than any wound I ever 
earned on the battlefield.
  I also almost lost the opportunity to even try IVF because a doctor 
in a well-known Catholic hospital that my VA hospital referred me to 
told me I was simply too old for treatment; that at 42, I should just 
``go home and enjoy my husband,'' instead, and if it was meant to be, I 
would get pregnant.
  It was pure luck that I found out that that doctor was lying to me, 
that she wasn't basing her advice on medical science but rather on her 
personal religious beliefs, nearly costing me my chance to have my two 
little girls.
  So it is a little personal when a majority male State supreme court 
suggests that people like me who became parents with the help of modern 
medicine should be in jail cells and not nurseries. And I know I am not 
the only one who struggles to understand how elected representatives 
who back these kinds of policies can call themselves members of the so-
called ``party of life.''
  No, rulings like this one and the bills with the same intent that are 
being pushed forward in State legislatures around the country are not 
about being pro-life. They are about catering to an extremist base by 
exerting even more control over women's bodies, inserting politicians 
into some of the most intimate, personal decisions anyone could ever 
make.
  Look, back when I was going through IVF, three of my five fertilized 
eggs were deemed nonviable. If a version of this ruling had been in 
place then, I might have been forced to implant each of those three 
nonviable embryos. I might have been forced to suffer through three 
more miscarriages or else risk me or my doctor being convicted of 
manslaughter for discarding nonviable fertilized eggs.
  That is the kind of extremism that we are talking about here. That is 
the level of cruelty that we are facing. That is the kind of future we 
are fighting to prevent, where frozen embryos have more rights than the 
women who would carry them.
  Let's be clear about what led to this moment, the overturning of Roe 
is what made last week's ruling even possible, as it stripped women of 
a constitutional right, transferring the power to decide whether or 
when to start families from us to politicians in State houses across 
the country.
  Donald Trump is the one who brags about taking down Roe v. Wade. 
Donald Trump is the one who acts as if that is something to be proud 
of. So while it may now be convenient for him to claim that he had 
nothing to do with what happened in Alabama, we know the truth. IVF is 
at risk because of him. He is to blame. Him and every other GOP 
official who shamelessly kisses his ring, proving with every word they 
say that they care more about protecting his poll numbers than 
protecting Americans' freedoms.

[[Page S1033]]

  After Roe v. Wade was overturned--actually, even before then, when 
the Senate was deciding whether to confirm Brett Kavanaugh and Amy 
Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court--I warned that red States would come 
for IVF. And now they have. But they aren't going to stop in Alabama. 
Mark my words, if we do not act now, it will only get worse.
  There are a lot of nuanced tough calls we must make as Senators. 
This, simply, isn't one of them. We know what is right, even if 
extremist courts would like to rob millions of us of our rights. We 
shouldn't need to wait until women and doctors are thrown in jail 
before we act to protect them.
  That is why today I am begging my colleagues to help me pass my 
Access to Family Building Act. A bill that would ensure that every 
American's right to become a parent via treatments like IVF is fully 
protected, regardless of what State they live in, helping guarantee 
that no hopeful parent or doctor in this country can be held criminally 
liable for starting or growing a family through IVF.
  The reality is, one in four married women have difficulty getting 
pregnant or carrying a pregnancy to term. That number doesn't even 
include partnerless Americans or other families also trying to have 
kids. That is one in four in red States and in blue States, in big 
cities and rural towns, in the wealthiest neighborhoods and in the 
poorest of ZIP Codes, because infertility doesn't discriminate between 
party lines. It doesn't recognize State borders.
  No one should feel that someone else's religious beliefs or partisan 
slants could rob them of their chance to get pregnant, and no doctor 
should have to risk a criminal record just to provide women basic 
healthcare.
  So to my Republican colleagues, please, think about how many that one 
in four equates to in your State. Women willing to go through 
expensive, painful medical treatments just for a chance to experience 
the smallest, most banal moments of parenthood. Just to have a newborn 
to swaddle, a baby whose diaper needs to be changed, a toddler who 
needs their shoes to be tied. And if you believe that they have the 
right to be called ``Mom'' without also being called a criminal, then 
all you have to do to prove it is to let us pass this should-be-obvious 
legislation, because in this nightmarish moment, it is nowhere near 
enough to send out a vaguely worded tweet claiming you care about 
women's rights, despite a voting record to the contrary.
  No, this is where the rubber meets the road. If you truly care about 
the sanctity of families, if you are genuinely, actually, honestly 
interested in protecting IVF, then you need to show it by not blocking 
this bill today. It is that simple.