Republican Senator Single-Handedly Blocks Yet Another IVF Bill

Despite insisting that they are “pro-life” and support in vitro fertilization, Senate Republicans have blocked a second bill that would have expanded access to the treatment.

Washington Senator Patty Murray tried to pass a bill Tuesday that would allow all veterans to access IVF and other fertility treatments at Veterans Affairs facilities. Currently, in order to qualify for VA treatment, veterans must prove their infertility is due to a health issue caused by their military service.

Murray had tried to pass her bill via unanimous consent, which is the fastest way to get a measure through the Senate but also the riskiest, because just one “no” vote can tank legislation. And that’s exactly what happened Tuesday: Senator James Lankford objected to the bill.

“I understand it’s become vogue in this current season right now to be able to say Republicans are somehow opposed to life because they’re opposed to IVF,” Lankford said. “I just don’t find that.”

Still, the Oklahoma Republican argued the bill’s definition of “infertility” was “very broad.” The measure stated that an infertility condition means either “a diagnosis of infertility” or “the inability to reproduce or safely carry a pregnancy to term, including as a result of treatment for another condition.”

Lankford said he was trying to “figure out what that means,” referring to the second definition.

It’s unclear how much more information Lankford needs. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines infertility as “not being able to get pregnant (conceive) after one year (or longer) of unprotected sex.” So it would seem that the bill’s definition is pretty medically spot-on.

Lankford also said he took issue with more procedural matters, such as that the bill hadn’t been debated or analyzed by the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee and that the Congressional Budget Office hadn’t determined how much the measure would cost.

Murray’s bill—and Lankford’s killing it—comes just two weeks after one Republican senator single-handedly tanked a separate measure aimed at protecting IVF. Democratic Senator Tammy Duckworth introduced a bill in late February to codify IVF protections, and asked for unanimous consent. Republican Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith opposed the measure.

Republicans have paid plenty of lip service to IVF since the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that embryos created through IVF can be considered children, torpedoing the state’s fertility industry. But they have studiously avoided taking actual action to protect the procedure.

Meanwhile, state lawmakers rushed through a new law to specifically protect IVF, but it still leaves open the question of fetal personhood.

Tensions between House Republicans have gotten so high that a swath of the caucus is thinking of opting out of a free, luxury vacation in order to avoid spending more time together.

Fewer than 100 Republicans have so far RSVP’d to the annual retreat, set to begin Wednesday, and they are using every excuse under the sun not to attend, from prescheduled appearances on late-night TV to having “a farm to run.”

Those who decided to skip include House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green, and Representatives Nancy Mace, Tim Burchett, Matt Gaetz, Kelly Armstrong, Dusty Johnson, Stephanie Bice, and Dave Joyce. Collectively, more than half of the entire conference has decided to skirt attendance.

Privately, some lawmakers complained to CNN that the choice of location—the Greenbrier Resort in West Virginia—was not as enticing as former Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s prior picks in Florida.

But others told the outlet that their choice simply boiled down to not wanting to spend more time with their boisterous colleagues. Together, the Republican-led House has amounted to one of the least productive congressional sessions in history, passing a measly 27 bills that became law in 2023 out of a sum total of 724 votes. That same Republican-led House has continued to stall on core elements of their jobs well into 2024, including passing government spending bills and foreign aid assistance.

Altogether, it’s another bad omen for the health of the legislature, which is witnessing resignations en masse, citing similar complaints of Republican infighting and lack of competency. On Tuesday, Colorado Representative Ken Buck submitted his resignation in a hurry, giving less than two weeks’ notice for the historically coveted job, which surprised everyone, including his boss, Speaker Mike Johnson.

The Republican National Committee is getting serious about election integrity. And to head up a new unit dedicated to the issue, the RNC has tapped a far-right, pro-Trump election denier.

Since Donald Trump successfully installed his daughter-in-law in an RNC leadership position, the committee has seen a dramatic reshuffle. After major layoffs, senior positions have been stacked with Trump allies, including lawyer Christina Bobb, who has been tapped to lead the RNC’s new election integrity division, The Washington Post reported Tuesday night.

“I look forward to working to secure our elections and restore confidence in the process,” Bobb told the Post in a statement.

Bobb’s appointment should be a major cause for concern. Bobb joined Trump’s legal team last year, and before that, she was an anchor at the far-right network OAN. She was a vocal supporter of 2020 election fraud conspiracy theories, and a nonprofit she founded donated more than $600,000 to the bogus “audit” of votes in Maricopa County, Arizona.

During the 2022 midterm elections, Bobb continued to push falsehoods that the elections might be rigged. She said that any delay in election results should be considered “suspicious,” stoking fear about valid votes.

Trump managed to force out former RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel last week and has been quick to install his stooges at the committee’s highest levels. Although McDaniel was loyal to Trump, she exhibited more restraint than he would have liked. McDaniel and her co-chair were replaced by Trump’s picks: former North Carolina Republican Party Chair Michael Whatley and Trump’s daughter-in-law Lara Trump.

Since taking the reins, Lara Trump has made it clear that she intends to corral all of the RNC’s influence and finances into supporting her father-in-law’s reelection campaign. She even warned that there was no longer a place in the GOP for anti-Trump Republicans.

“Anyone who is not on board with seeing Donald Trump as the forty-seventh president and America-loving patriots all the way down the ticket being supported by the RNC is welcome to leave because we are not playing games,” she said, shortly before she assumed power.

Donald Trump and his 17 co-defendants woke up to some good news regarding their Georgia election interference case on Wednesday: Judge Scott McAfee threw out some of the charges.

McAfee decided that six of the charges against Trump and some of his co-defendants lacked too much detail to be brought to trial. That includes charges related to Trump and Mark Meadows’s alleged pressure campaign on state officials, like Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and then–Georgia House Speaker David Ralston, to unlawfully appoint alternative presidential electors. Trump will now face 10 felony charges in Georgia, instead of the original 13.

“The Court’s concern is less that the State has failed to allege sufficient conduct of the Defendants—in fact it has alleged an abundance. However, the lack of detail concerning an essential legal element is, in the undersigned’s opinion, fatal,” McAfee wrote in Wednesday’s order.

“As written, these six counts contain all the essential elements of the crimes but fail to allege sufficient detail regarding the nature of their commission, i.e., the underlying felony solicited,” McAfee continued. “They do not give the Defendants enough information to prepare their defenses intelligently, as the Defendants could have violated the Constitutions and thus the statute in dozens, if not hundreds, of distinct ways.”

“In other words, a naked charge of solicitation cannot survive unless accompanied by additional elements establishing the solicited felony,” he added.

Still, the Georgia Superior Court judge did leave most of the case intact, noting that the entirety of the indictment is not dismissed. He also wrote that several of the “overt acts” related to racketeering charges that Trump had attempted to dismiss will in fact remain.

Meanwhile, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’s future on the case remains murky. McAfee has said he will rule on her alleged ethics violations pertaining to her relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade, and potential disqualification from the case, by the end of the week.

Despite drumbeating for more than a year to impeach Joe Biden, House Republicans have quietly begun looking for an off-ramp in the face of an overwhelming lack of evidence against the president—and a rapidly shrinking majority in the chamber.

Republicans have accused Biden and his son Hunter of corruption and influence peddling, but their lengthy investigation has failed to turn up any proof of the president’s wrongdoing. In fact, the biggest criminal act revealed during the course of the probe was committed by the GOP’s own star witness, Alexander Smirnov. The Department of Justice has accused him of making up the allegations against the Biden family that jump-started the whole impeachment effort.

As the investigation crumbles, Republicans are starting to sour on it entirely. “I don’t think we have the will to impeach Joe Biden,” Texas Representative Troy Nehls told Fox News on Tuesday. “We just don’t.”

Some lawmakers don’t even want to bring the impeachment to the floor for a vote. Although Tennessee Representative Tim Burchett warned Politico that “the base is going to demand it,” his fellow party members don’t think it’s worth it.

“That’s not a vote you put on the floor if you don’t have a chance of passing it,” North Dakota Representative Kelly Armstrong said.

What’s more, Colorado Representative Ken Buck announced Tuesday that he would leave Congress in a matter of days. His departure further shrinks the House GOP’s already razor-thin majority, making it that much more difficult to pass anything, let alone articles of impeachment.

Republicans have three main options to take their foot off the gas. First, they could issue criminal referrals to the Department of Justice, recommending that the department prosecute certain people. These referrals are nonbinding, meaning the department can choose whether or not to act on them.

“At the end of the day, what does accountability look like?” House Oversight Chair James Comer, who has spearheaded the charge against the Biden family, said last week on Fox News. “It looks like criminal referrals. It looks like referring people to the Department of Justice.”

A criminal referral falls far short of Comer’s originally stated goal, which was to impeach and ultimately remove Biden from office. But with his probe going up in flames around him, the Kentucky representative is just looking for an “exit strategy,” a congressional Republican told ABC, speaking anonymously.

Comer could be seeking to play a longer game here, though. He could issue criminal referrals in the hope that Donald Trump will be reelected in November. Trump, who backs the impeachment effort, could then instruct the Justice Department to take up the charges.

Republicans could also seek to pass laws that tighten restrictions on influence peddling, but that could backfire. It’s unclear whether the Democratic-controlled Senate would pass such a bill, but Democrats could agree to pass the measures in order to crack down on Trump’s profiting off the Oval Office.

Finally, the GOP could continue to subpoena documents and witnesses and even sue people who don’t comply. But this could drag the process out for years, which would do nothing to actually help Republicans going after Biden.