A U.S.
Senate bill aimed at enshrining federal protections and expanding insurance
coverage for fertility treatments failed on Tuesday, as Republicans voted
against it days after Donald Trump surprised
supporters by voicing support for such a policy.
The bill
failed 51-44, falling short of the required 60-vote threshold after most
Republicans voted against it for the second time. Democrats control the chamber
by a slim 51-49 margin.
The bill's
sponsor, Democratic Senator Tammy Duckworth, first
attempted to get a vote on the same bill in late February,
after the Alabama Supreme Court ruled the embryos used in in vitro
fertilization, or IVF, should be considered children, jeopardizing access to
the treatment used by millions of Americans every year.
"The
freedom to get reproductive care is at risk for millions of other women whose
most desperate hope in the world is to have a little one of their own,"
Duckworth, who had her two daughters via fertility treatments, said in a Senate
floor speech after Tuesday's vote. "Republicans only seem to care about
protecting life when it supposedly consists of some cells in a medical lab
freezer."
Republican
presidential candidate Trump said in
August he would require the government or insurance companies
to pay for IVF if he is elected, surprising some hardline Republicans for whom
the treatment is controversial.
"We
want to produce babies in this country, right?" Trump said during a town
hall-style campaign event in La Crosse, Wisconsin.
Trump's
campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.