Republican Blocks Bill Protecting Access To IVF

 

Should there be anyone foolish enough to believe that Christofascist Republicans aren't intent on protecting, preserving, and expanding the Republican Alabama Supreme Court's egregious ruling on embryos being children, read on:

Senate Republicans have blocked legislation that would protect access to in vitro fertilization, objecting to a vote on the issue Wednesday even after widespread backlash to a recent ruling by the Alabama Supreme Court that threatens the practice.

Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, a Mississippi Republican, objected to a request for a vote by Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., who used IVF treatments to have her two children after struggling with years of infertility. Duckworth’s bill would establish a federal right to the treatments as the Alabama ruling has upended fertility care in the state and families who had already started the process face heartbreak and uncertainty.

Several clinics in the state announced they were pausing IVF services as they sort out last week’s ruling, which said that frozen embryos can be considered children under state law. The court said that three Alabama couples who lost frozen embryos during an accident at a storage facility could sue the fertility clinic and hospital for the wrongful death of a minor child.

Democrats have immediately seized on the election-year ruling, warning that other states could follow Alabama’s lead and that other rights could be threatened as well in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe vs. Wade and the federal right to an abortion in 2022. Congress passed similar legislation in 2022 that would protect the federal right to same-sex and interracial marriages.  [snip]

Abortion opponents have pushed laws in at least 15 states based on the idea that a fetus should have the same rights as a person...

Now, is there anyone foolish enough to believe the Christofascist Republicans aren't coming for contraception next?

As has been noted, and made clear by the Chief Judge of the Alabama Republican Supreme Court, these crackpots believe in a pseudo- religious "Seven Mountain Mandate" calling on fundamentalists to impose their values on all American life.  These are the same people setting the "Project 2025" white nationalist agenda for a future Malignant Loser administration.  These are the same people behind placing the Trumpist extremists on the Republican U.S. Supreme Court that gave us the Dobbs decision. This is the same ideology floating around in MAGA Mike Johnson's fevered brain. This is what you can expect -- and worse -- should these fascist extremists take the White House.  It's a war on families and freedom, and the most vile government intrusion into the most personal decisions imaginable.

Believe them when they tell you who they are, ffs.

(Photo:  Christofascist goblin Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, R-Jebusland / Michael Brochstein, Sipa USA via AP file)

The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly

 

The good:

Reacting to a controversial new Alabama Supreme Court ruling that embryos should be considered people under the law, Democratic Sen. Tammy Duckworth said on Sunday that she was "devastated" for how this could affect treatments like in vitro fertilization.

She also called out conservatives whom she suggested were being disingenuous in distancing themselves from the case.

"Let's make it clear: Republicans will say whatever they need to say to try to cover themselves on this, but they've been clear and Donald Trump has been the guy leading this effort to eliminate women's reproductive rights and reproductive choice," Duckworth, an Illinois lawmaker, told ABC News "This Week" co-anchor Martha Raddatz. "And so this is the next step."

Referring to her Access to Family Building Act, which would guarantee access to IVF and other reproductive services, Duckworth added, "It's been crickets since the Alabama ruling ... not a single Republican has reached out to me on the bill. I've introduced a bill, multiple times, now multiple Congresses -- but frankly, let's see if they vote for it when we when we bring it to the floor."

Duckworth understands firsthand the fertility challenges many women face. After years of trying to have children, she turned to IVF, eventually having two daughters because of the procedure. She even made history in 2018 by becoming the first senator to have a child, her second daughter, while serving in the chamber...  (our emphasis)

Democrats have been fighting on this issue ever since the Malignant Loser's Republican U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.  Now that the all- Republican Alabama Supreme Court has ruled that IVF embryos are "children," people who thought they might be safe from the Christofascists' war on women and families are waking up, hence the Republican panic and furious backpedaling.  No one should be fooled, and good on Democrats for pounding on this.  Next up:  going after contraception.

The bad:

The U.S. Congress lurches into a new week of political chaos on Monday, as lawmakers struggle to avoid a partial government shutdown in just five days, while pushing for an election-year trial of President Joe Biden's top border official.

The Republican-controlled House of Representatives is also grasping for a way forward on vital U.S. aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, and plans to hear closed-door testimony from Biden's son, Hunter Biden, in an impeachment probe that has failed so far to turn up evidence of wrongdoing by the president.

 

Congress has been characterized by Republican brinkmanship and muddled priorities over the past year, more so since Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump undermined a bipartisan border deal in the Senate and now wants aid to U.S. allies extended as loans.

 

Almost two months have passed since Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson and Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer agreed on a $1.59 trillion discretionary spending level for the fiscal year that began on Oct. 1.

 

Since then, Congress has failed to follow through with the detailed legislation that would put that agreement into effect.

 

"It's becoming more chaotic," said Brian Riedl, senior fellow at the right-leaning Manhattan Institute. "The longer Congress is dysfunctional, the further they fall behind on very time-sensitive, high-priority legislation."  [snip]

 

Major ratings agencies say the repeated brinkmanship is taking a toll on the creditworthiness of a nation whose debt has surpassed $34 trillion.

 

In the latest sign of an ungovernable House Republican majority, some hardliners are threatening to oust Johnson as speaker, if the Christian conservative allows a vote on the $95 billion foreign aid bill that passed the Senate with overwhelming bipartisan support...

It's a chaos cult with a chaos cult leader.  The world is watching, but are American voters?

The ugly:

Ohio Republicans last year suffered a double blow in their efforts to thwart the steady nationwide progress of abortion rights ballot measures.

First they tried and failed to require ballot measures to get 60 percent of the vote, in a transparent ploy to raise the threshold for an abortion rights amendment to the state constitution. Voters rejected that, with 57 percent voting against a 60 percent threshold. Then they lost on the actual abortion rights amendment by about the same margin, making Ohio the latest red state to vote in favor of abortion rights.

But that hasn’t dissuaded other red-state Republicans from trying their own creative workarounds.

And Missouri Republicans are among the most audacious, proposing new restrictions that clearly favor their side.

Abortion rights activists in the state are working to get an amendment to the state constitution on the ballot in November. But the GOP-controlled Missouri state Senate on Thursday approved a measure that could make such things significantly more difficult — at least for the left.

The proposal, which passed along party lines, would require amendments to receive not only a majority of the vote statewide — as is currently required — but also a majority in five of eight congressional districts.

This would be a much bigger hurdle for those on the left, because Missouri has five very Republican congressional districts...

These Christofascists don't want to govern by majority rule.  They want to impose their ersatz religious views on everyone else, regardless.  We refer you to the Alabama Supreme Court IVF ruling by the Christofascists there, and the Christofascists' intention to impose their fundamentalist values on the "seven mountains": government, education, media, religion, family, business, and entertainment.  They can't do that if everyone is allowed to vote!!

Dumb And Dumber

 

Trae Crowder (a.k.a., the Liberal Redneck) summarizes the latest MAGAt Republican pratfalls and outrages in his "Red Dumb Roundup":