(PatriotWise.com) — Illinois Senator Tammy Duckworth last weekend blasted the recent Alabama Supreme Court ruling that frozen embryos should be considered people and therefore those who would destroy them could be liable for wrongful death, saying she feared how that decision could affect the future of in vitro fertilization, ABC News reported.
In an interview with ABC’s “This Week” co-anchor Martha Raddatz, Duckworth suggested that Republican lawmakers would try to “cover themselves” by opposing the ruling but said they had been clear that they wanted to “eliminate women’s reproductive rights.”
Calling the Alabama ruling “the next step” in blocking “reproductive choice,” Duckworth said since the court ruling, not one Republican lawmaker had offered to support her Access to Family Building Act, which would guarantee access to reproductive services, including IVF.
Duckworth noted that she had introduced the act several times in multiple Congresses and said time would tell if Republicans would back the measure when it was brought up for a vote.
The Illinois Democrat, whose two daughters were born through IVF, said that under the Alabama high court’s decision, her doctor would have been liable for manslaughter or murder for destroying the three non-viable embryos with her consent.
Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said last week that he had no intention of prosecuting IVF providers or parents who use IVF. However, at least three providers in the state have stopped offering IVF treatments in the wake of the Alabama Supreme Court’s decision.
Duckworth accused Republicans of putting the rights of frozen embryos over the rights of women, despite Donald Trump and several leading Republican lawmakers voicing their opposition to the Alabama court ruling.
Trump said it should be easier, not harder, for parents to have babies.
Duckworth told Martha Raddatz that the Alabama ruling was an inevitable outcome of the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. She said moving forward, the Democrats would be highlighting the Alabama decision in the 2024 election as proof that Republicans were targeting “reproductive rights.”
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