{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.hirono.senate.gov/news/press-releases/video-hirono-votes-to-protect-access-to-ivf-blasts-republicans-on-senate-floor", "VIDEO: Hirono Votes to Protect Access to IVF, Blasts Republicans on Senate Floor", "2024-06-13", "2024", "2024-06", "Democrat", "Senate", "HI", "Mazie K. Hirono", "H001042", "www.hirono.senate.gov", "hirono", "https://www.hirono.senate.gov/news/press-releases", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, DC \u2013 Today, U.S. Senator Mazie K. Hirono (D-HI) voted in support of the Right to IVF Act, legislation to protect the right to in-vitro fertilization (IVF) and other assisted reproductive technology (ART) services, as well as expand insurance coverage of IVF treatment for those who struggle with infertility. Prior to the vote\u2014which failed on the Senate floor, with only two Republicans voting to advance it\u2014Senator Hirono delivered a speech blasting Republicans for blocking IVF protection bills twice this year and highlighted that IVF treatment has been provided safely for over 45 years.\n\n\u201cFor decades, IVF and other assisted reproductive technologies, or ART, have helped people, who otherwise couldn\u2019t, start families of their own,\u201d said Senator Hirono. \u201cWhile some on the right like to paint IVF as some sort of new or untested technology, that is not so. The first baby delivered via IVF was more than 45 years ago, and since then IVF has helped bring more than 10 million babies into this world.\u201d\n\nIn her remarks, Senator Hirono spoke to the importance of Senate Democrats\u2019 legislation to protect the right to IVF, amid rising attacks on IVF from Republicans across the country.\n\n\u201cThe last thing people trying to conceive need to worry about is being criminalized by some of the states I mentioned like Alabama because of the whims of far-right jurists and politicians,\u201d continued Senator Hirono. \u201cThat\u2019s why this bill is so important. It would establish a nationwide right for patients to access IVF and other ART services, and a right for doctors to provide IVF treatment. And, crucially, it would require and expand health insurance coverage of IVF, because we know access without affordability is not true access.\u201d\n\nSenator Hirono also called out Republican colleagues for voting against the legislation, despite claiming to support IVF access.\n\n\u201cMy Republican colleagues appear blinded by their obsession with power and control over women\u2019s bodies that they\u2019re unable to support even this common-sense bill\u2014again indicating how out of touch Republicans are with the needs of particularly women in our country,\u201d said Senator Hirono. \u201cIt is disappointing, but not surprising.\u201d\n\nEarlier this year, the Supreme Court of Alabama invoked a \u2018fetal personhood\u2019 law, ruling that frozen embryos have the same rights as children, effectively halting IVF treatment in the state. Following this ruling, Senator Hirono joined over 40 of her colleagues in introducing the Access to Family Building Act, legislation\u2014also blocked by Republicans\u2014that would establish a nationwide right for patients to access IVF and other ART services without prohibition, limitation, or interference, and a right for doctors to provide IVF treatment.\n\nA transcript of Senator Hirono\u2019s floor speech is below and video is available for download here.\n\nM. President, as we approach the two-year anniversary of the disastrous Dobbs decision, I am struck by the chaos it has sown across our country. Last week, on this floor, I was joined by a number of my Democratic colleagues in speaking out against Republicans\u2019 attacks on contraception. Despite the relentless attacks from my colleagues across the aisle that they support the right to contraception, when it came down to it, nearly every Republican voted against a bill protecting the right to access contraception.\n\nToday, I rise in defense of another tool that has helped millions of people across our country start or grow their families \u2013 this tool is called IVF or in-vitro fertilization. For decades, IVF and other assisted reproductive technologies, or ART, have helped people, who otherwise couldn\u2019t, start families of their own. While some on the right like to paint IVF as some sort of new or untested technology, that is not so. The first baby delivered via IVF was more than 45 years ago, and since then IVF has helped bring more than 10 million babies into this world. In fact, as a State Representative in the Hawaii legislature in the 1980s, I led the passage of a bill making Hawaii one of the first states in the nation to require health insurers to cover IVF treatment. That was in 1987\u2014years before the iPhone, before email, before some of my colleagues in Congress were even born. And yet, thanks to the chaos created by Dobbs, a whole range of reproductive rights are on the chopping block.\n\nLook at Alabama, where the state Supreme Court invoked a \u2018fetal personhood\u2019 law to call into question the legality of IVF, effectively halting IVF treatment in the state. In this very chamber\u2014earlier this year, Republicans blocked our attempt to pass a bill protecting IVF. The impacts of these concerted attacks are being felt far beyond red states. In Hawaii, an OBGYN on Oahu, reported that he\u2019s \u201c[O]bserved an increasing level of anxiety among both [his] fertility patients and staff.\u201d So, Hawaii being one of the first states to protect IVF and promote IVF, this doctor is saying that even his patients are seeing the impact of all of these attacks on reproductive rights.\n\nIVF is a complicated process as it is, even under the best of circumstances. The last thing people trying to conceive need to worry about is being criminalized by some of the states I mentioned like Alabama because of the whims of far-right jurists and politicians. That\u2019s why this bill is so important. It would establish a nationwide right for patients to access IVF and other ART services, and a right for doctors to provide IVF treatment. And, crucially, it would require and expand health insurance coverage of IVF, because we know access without affordability is not true access.\n\nBut my Republican colleagues appear blinded by their obsession with power and control over women\u2019s bodies that they\u2019re unable to support even this common-sense bill\u2014again indicating how out of touch Republicans are with the needs of particularly women in our country. It is disappointing, but not surprising. They continue to show us just how out of step they are with the American people. Today, Democrats will vote to protect the right to IVF as we continue working to ensure people can make decisions about their bodies, their lives, and their futures, free from government interference. Thank you.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-07T21:11:47Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.hirono.senate.gov/news/press-releases/video-hirono-votes-to-protect-access-to-ivf-blasts-republicans-on-senate-floor"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.8692611008882523, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}