Katie Britt, Who’s Voted Against Protecting IVF, Says Democrats Just Use It As a ‘Scare Tactic’

In February, fertility clinics across Alabama shuttered IVF services after the state Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos are “extrauterine children” whose routine destruction can qualify for wrongful death lawsuits. While Alabama lawmakers rushed through a bill to explicitly protect IVF, restoring access to the treatment, the ruling made clear that right-wing concepts like fetal personhood inherently jeopardize IVF. And despite the fact that most politicians publicly claim to support IVF, Senate Republicans have already blocked legislation to codify federal protections for it several times this year. 

They seem to really dislike being called out for these conflicting positions, with Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.) on Sunday saying that when Democrats discuss protecting IVF, it’s merely a “scare tactic.”

Speaking to Shannon Bream on Fox News, Britt referenced a letter she wrote with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), which performatively affirmed support for IVF access and received signatures from the entire Senate Republican caucus. “The truth is, Democrats continue to use this issue as a scare tactic, because IVF is legal and accessible in all 50 states. And President Trump has made it perfectly clear that he’ll continue to make sure that that’s the case,” Britt said.

When Bream then asked Britt why she has voted against Democrats’ bills to protect IVF, Britt claimed that these bills, which protect the right to provide and receive fertility treatments, “extended into human cloning.” That’s a lie.

Criticizing Democrats’ IVF bills as political posturing has become a refrain among Republicans, who claim IVF isn’t under threat, all while repeatedly blocking protections for it. On September 17, when Senate Democrats again introduced a bill to codify a right to fertility treatments, Senate Minority Whip John Thune (R-S.D.) accused Democrats of staging “another show vote” on IVF, adding, “This is not an attempt to make law. This is not an attempt to get an outcome or to legislate. This is simply an attempt by Democrats to try and create a political issue where there isn’t one.” Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), the GOP vice presidential nominee, responded to the same bill by claiming Democrats are playing “political games.” 

That same day, Cruz and Britt reintroduced their bill—first introduced in May—that claims to protect IVF by threatening to withhold funding from states if they enact explicit bans on the procedure. However, it’s highly unlikely any state would enact an outright ban; IVF will instead be pushed out of reach by anti-abortion laws that say life begins at conception, or restrictions on aspects of the IVF process, as we saw in Alabama. 

When Cruz first introduced the bill, Barbara Collura, president of RESOLVE: The National Infertility Association, told Jezebel, “It would be very easy for states to say ‘IVF is still legal but has to be done in a particular way,’ in a particular way that clinics can’t do, but still adhere to the bill.” Democrats blocked the bill from receiving a vote, with Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) warning that Cruz and Britt’s bill is “silent on fetal personhood, which is the biggest threat to IVF.” She added, “It is silent on whether states can demand that an embryo be treated the same as a living breathing person, or whether parents should be allowed to have clinics dispose of unused embryos—something that is a common, necessary part of the IVF process.”

Britt’s reassurances about where Republicans stand on IVF come as Trump has began to campaign on the issue, lying that he would introduce a program to cover IVF for all. Of course, one of the reasons IVF is under threat is due to the reversal of Roe v. Wade—which Trump often boasts about killing.

It’s not just Senate Republicans, or even just Alabama. On the state level, Republicans have also been going after IVF. In February, Tennessee Republicans blocked a bill to establish rights to IVF and birth control because, they said, it would weaken their total abortion ban. The North Carolina Republican Party’s official 2024 platform, adopted in June, opposes the destruction of human embryos, seemingly calling for a ban on IVF. In May, the Texas Republican Party ratified its own official 2024 platform, which called for the criminalization of IVF. And several top anti-abortion groups have taken a firm stance against IVF, too. Before Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey (R) signed an emergency, pro-IVF bill earlier this year, a coalition of top anti-abortion leaders asked her not to, writing in a letter that protections for IVF “will ultimately harm these families and jeopardize the lives of precious children” (referring to embryos), adding that “IVF is not a morally neutral issue.” 

Access to IVF, like all reproductive health care, is more precarious than ever now that Roe is dead and the floodgates for fetal personhood are wide open. As Democratic lawmakers continue to force votes on IVF bills, this isn’t about fearmongering—it’s about addressing a real threat that anti-abortion lawmakers have helped create for years.