The presiding officer we are not. Ms. Duckworth ive been called in my life, tammy, colonel, senator, but mommy is without a doubt my favorite]3. Its the one my 5yearold uses when she runs into house after dance class eager tocn sh me what she learned. Its the one my 9yearold uses when she announces her lif she wanted to be a and now she wants to be a cyber warier. They would not have been without the basic rights that americans have been depending on for n century. After a decade of struggling in in iraq, i was through the miracle of ivf. It is the reason why i get to experience the joy, beauty, stress and joy. It is the reaso my husband and i are not just tammy and but were mom and dad. Ivf made my heart full. But for alabama, that desperately a mom just became so much harder. Last week, that States Supreme Court ruled that fzen embryos created through ivf should be considered children underuk stan law, a ruling that paints women like our doctors as criminals, andtn] into chaos as people wonder cri trying to create a family. If youre right. Youre not misunderstanding its theshly blend of thinkis. And misogyny that you those claiming to that this prevent americans from starting their own families. This this is no lonr■ hypothetical worsecase scenario. Ivf providers around the state have paused treatments out of fear that their doctors and pun organizations that embryos to and from medical facilities in alabama h announc stop doing so, meaning that wouldbe parents there wont be able to start their families in any other states either. And now that the first domino has d only be a matter of time before more hospitals and more organizations make the same call, before more state courts issue similar rulings, before more extremist politicians■■ succeed in enacting even more draconian laws nationwide. Think about that. Think about whats at stake if state simply strip away access to ivf. Think how many would wouldbe moms would not hear their childs first gurgle of a laugh, how many dads might not be able to fairy when their daughter loses a tooth. I i didnt know it at the t infertility would become one of the m heartbreaking struggles in my life, my miscarriage more painful than any wound on the battlefield. A doctor at a wellknown Catholic Hospital that m hospital referred me to told me i was simply toot that at 42, i husband instead and if it was it was pure luck that i found out that that doctor was lying advice on medical scienceut on her personal religious beliefs, nearly costing me my chance to have my two little girls. So its a little personal when majority male state Supreme Court sugst p■ pl who became parents with the help of jail cells and nurseries, i couldnt dont dont understand how they can call themselves the member of the party of life no rulings like this one and the bills with the same intent bein legislatures around the country are not a prolife, theyre about catering to an extremist base by controlling womens bodies, pushing politics into. So the most personal decisions anyone could make. When i was going through ivf, threemy five fertilized eggs were deemed nonviable. If a version of thisul been in place then, i might have been forced to implant each these three each of thoseiabt have been forced to suffer through three more miscarriages or risk me or my daughter being convicted manslaughter. Thats the kind of extremist extremism were talking about here. Thats the level of cruelty were facing, thats the kind of future were fighting prevent. When frozen embryos have more rights than the carry them. Lets be clear about what led to the overturning of roe made last week possible, transferring the power of whether or when to start families from us to politicians in state houses across the country. Donald trump is the one who brags about taking down roe v. Wade, donald trump asks ifcp tha■j something to be proud of. While it may be convenient for him to cim to do with what happened in alabama, with we know thet risk he is to blame. Him and every other gop official who shamelessly kisses hi oving say, more about protecting his poll numbers tha after roe v. Wade was overturned, even before then, when the deciding whether to confirm amy coney ba, i warranted that red warned that red states would c for ivf and they have. If we do in the act now, it will only get worse. There are a lot of of nuanced tough calls we must make a, thi of them. We know even if extremist courts would like to rob we shouldnt have to wait nool women and doctors are thrown into jail before we act to protect them. Thats why today im begging my coeagues to help me pass my access to Family Building act, a ensure every americans right to become a parent through treatments like ivf are fully protected regardless of what stateheyin. Helping guarantee that no hopeful parnlt or can be held c liable for the reality is one in four married women have carrying a pregnancy to that doesnt include part nefless americans or other fami trying to have kids. Thats one in four in red state cities and rural towns, in t the in the wealthiest towns and poore of zip codes, infertility doesnt recognize state borders, no one should eleoelses religious beliefs should rob them of thra doctor should have to risk a im■inal record just to provide women basic health care. To my Republican Co how many that one in four equates to in your go through expensive, painful medical treatments of trep . Atme experie parenthood, to experience a baby that needs to bed or a toddler who needs their shoes to be tied, if you believe they need to be called a mom this should be obvious legislation. Because in this it is nowhere nh to send out a tweet claiming you care about womens right despite a voting record to the contrary. This is it where the rubber the about families, and honesy 1c interested in protecting ivf, then you need to show it by not blocking t its that simple. You. Madam president , as if in legislative session, i ask unanimous consent that the committeeged from further consideration of36 to its immediate consideration. Further, that the bill be considered read a third time and passednd the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. The presiding officer is there to object. The presiding officer the senator from mississippi. Mrs. Hydesmit i support the ability for mothers and fathers to have total access t and bringing new life into the world. I also believe human life should be protected. These are not mutually exclusive. Lets be clear about what the alabama case is about. This was a case brought by families whose human embryos were kille unauthorized individual walked into the fertility clinic through an unsecure door, roved several human embryos and dropped them the Courts Holding in favor of the parents found these frozen embriyosn under law. It did not ban ivf nor has a iv the bill before us today is a vast overreach that is full of poison pills that go way too far, far beyond ensuring legal access to ivf. The act explicitly waives the religious freedom act and would it could be forced fa till tate procedures facilitate procedures that violate their core beliefs, including Health Insurance plans. This could be the first■ t the Chuck Schumer was explicitly waived expansion definition of reproductivive technology sweeps in much more than ivfhing implicationings. It would it would legalize commercial eo surrogacy, including for young girls without parental vo would legalize edited designer baby designer babies, it would legalize there of human animal, other developed countries like germany, new zealand and australia and states like louisiana have policies that allow ivf, coupled with commonsense proteio respect human life, creating rights to human cloning, the genetic engineering of human embryo is too extreme and goes far beyond ivf we should strive to do both and therefore, i object. The presiding officer the senator from o ms. Duckworth madam president , i have the greatest respect and vmmiration for my friend from mississippi, but i have to say i disagree w of my piece of legislation. This bill does three things and three things only, it protects the right of iiduals to seek reproductivive Technology Without fear of being prosecuted for for seeking that technology. It preserves■y■ right of physicians to provide that assisted preproductivive Technology Without fear of being prosecuted and itompanies to co does. Ed reproductivive it does not force to seek reproductivive technology, offer it or cover it. It says you h statutory right should you choose t pursue reproductivive technology that you will be able to do so. I in louisiana there is already state law that ozen embryos or frozen f fertili fertilizedation. In florida, there it is a bill pending before the state legislature that would deem that a fertilized egg is a being and provide for the opportunity for penalties to be would discard the fertiz real threat today. With that, i would like to yield to my colleague fromm. Ficer t senator from nevada. Ms. Cortez masto first, i want to start off by thanking my colleague, senator duckworth, for not only sharing her story of her wonderful family and beautiful two whoive i see myself what an r fantastic girls. I also w bringing forward this important legislation. Women across the country use ivf to start and grow their families. Youre hearing that not only from senator duckworth, ive heard it from so many people in nevada and really across the country. They make that choice in consultation with their partners, their families, and their doctors, not a government official. Not a government official. There is no logical reason to deny women that ght. And yet afro v. Wade aftere roe v. Wade fell, we could see a mile away that ivf was in senator duckworth came forward in recognizing that and thats why her legislation is simporta. Attackinga vf was ivf was another chance to erode womens rights in this country. Theyve introduced a fedal ban supersede state laws. Theyve stacked the antichoice judges. Theyve limited health care. And they have repeatedly ignored the very Science BehindReproductive Health care in order to push their agenda. In fact, we tried to do something about it a year ago. After roe was overturned, not only did senator duckworth come to the with her legislation, we numerous legislation on this floor to protect womens rights. And everyingle time, unfortunately, one of our Republican Colleagues comes forward without any explanation but continuing to really erode womens rights inhi have to say gop colleagues of ours claim to be prolife. They claim to planning. But really when it comes down to it, they dont have to be in ou communities and listen to■q■ihe women and their families and you understand that. The difference this time around court is actually calling their this hy to the ruling, and i believe its an extremen respone to this ruling, clinics, some clinics in alabama have halted ivf procedures. Theyve halted them. I have seen heartbreaking stories of alabama families who are bng forced to put their dreams of starting a family on hold, and im here it will not stop with alabama. The consequences of this rulg w those clinics in alabama that weve heard about, a chilling impacto have the legislation that bans it outright, but the■■m impact is another barrier. And you dont have like nevada prochoice state. If y threatening women, if youre threatening their families, if youre doctors that want to help these women, that has a Chilling Effect even in nevada. Even in nevada. These ext seeing this. You know, quite frankly, im watching them and theyre suddenly stuck. They have toid to agree with this judges antichoice decision or to concede that women should be allowed this basic rightin toif become when, and how to become a parent. Suddenly they have to decide how far theyre willing to go in w. Having a child through ivf is a. And it should not be lican colleagues, they know this. Yet they have once again refused to do the right thing for american families, by supintion. And let me just finally say hyp display. And america is watching. Dont. Just listen to the across this country a majority, a majority and i dont care its women i hear from. Its their loved , its men. I dont care what party you are. I dont care if youre democrat, republican,rnpartisan. A majority of americans want women to have this right to chse. Th w have this ability. They believe in having families. Thelivf. They believe in womens reproductive rits importantl this some of our Republican Colleagues are doing is inhibiting and limiting womens access to 21st Century Health care. Thats what this about. Why should we deny women the right t21st Century Health care if its going to save their going to help them have families . What is wrong with that a the d . So i haveh. Its unfortunate that we had an objection to her legislation that is so needed. Unfortunately in this day and age, but it is. Thats where we are today, fighting for womens, fighting across this country. To■[ my colleagues is, i trust women to make this decision. Why dont they . Thank you, madam president. I yield the floor. F the presiding officer the senator from washington. Mrs. Murray thank you, madam president. Thank you to my colague from illinois, from nevada, and other senators who are out here to fight for theig women to have basic Health Care Services in this country. You said before that republican attacks on reproductive freedom would never stop with roe. They would never stop with abortion. I risk. And now it has been so heartbreaking to see that warning become a gutwrenching reality no women in alabama. And it isutely infuriating to see some of the same republicansupport socalled fetal person who want very ideology in Supreme Court decision that ripped away access to ivf care. Suddenly acting surprised. Suddenlyo idea this would happen. Suddly acting like this was totally unforeseen when it actually what we have been warning about and exactly what the farn working towards for de surprise. The alabama Supreme Court desideology in action. So spare me the empty statements, especially after the objection that we just saw here work with us to protect your b. There are women in alabama who family, women who have tried for years to get pregnant, women who have gone through the heartbrea battling cancer and other diagn ivf is the only way ty will be able to have children. And now after everythingyve been through, the hope, the disappointthousands, even tens of thousands of dollars it can cost to p ivf, after all that, these women have shattered because republicans believe a frozen embryo kept in storage at an ivf clinicnd should have the exact same rights as a living, breathing human person. Thats note. That is not hypothetical. That is what is■d you dont have to imagine how ten to the s is. Women in alabama who have hador now by this has a rare blood disease, prevents her from carrying children. Her hopes of starting a family through ivf and a surrogate were dashed last week whether her doctor called to cancel her friday appointment. She asked abo embryos out of state. Even that doo to her. Jasmine york turned to ivf after previous ectopic pregnancies left her with no other options to have a baby. Now alabama has left her with n options at all. As she said, its just derailed a lot of hope. Nine years and 80,000 trying to have a child. Shes gone and she was days away, days away■1 from getting viable embryo transferred. But instead of getting that embryo transplanted, she got the same heartbreaking phone call. G put on hold. Trying, tens of thousands of dollars, andublica the rug out from under her. Even families who have already gone through ivf are facing the fallout. Can they afford to pay and store unus be prosecuted if they know. Right now no one knows. Theger, madam president , the anguish, the stories of these wo heartbreaking. As ivf patient Kelly Belmont p invested so much time and money and just physical and emotional anguish into this process, to think it could have all been for nothing and that we could bo have children is absolutely terrifying. O hold myself together emotionally. Unquote. So powerful. I dont know how anyone can still think politicians should be making Womens Health care decisions for them. I really dont. Now, i said earlier republicans are acting surprised now by the of the very policies theyve pushed for. They can save their ea thats because actions speak louder than rd of the same repus saying they care now about are literally right now cosponsors of legislation that would enshrine fetal personhood into law and make ivf unavailable nationwide. You cannot support ivf and pp fetal personhood laws. They are fda incompatible. Madam president , instead democr see action, and that is why we just tried to pass the access to Family Building act. It doesnt get any more straightforward than that. Blocked the bill and colors whe to ivf. I am i am not done fighting, because i know 3oericans are watching and they will not forget whosta across the country and who is t. Thank you, madam president. I yield the floor. A senator madam president. The presiding officer the senator from connecticut. Mr. Blumenthal as part of what were doing here, i ask unanimous coent following senators be permitted to speak for up to five minutes ea prior to the scheduled votes. Warren and wyden. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Blumenthal thank you. Ive been really awed and humbled by the eloquence of the women senatorswho have preceded me and to add to what theyv so powerfully already. But im a man. And this bill i about womens reproductive care and also about the rights of all of us. The nam of the act is the Family Building ac. Its about families. Its about men like myself whose most awesome moment in life hel born child. Men have an equal stake in toda. Men should be as scared and angry are about this trend which is so destruct ive o basic rights andights are human. The rights at stake here are rights that are american. What could be more american than wanting to bring a child the world and what could be more heartbreaking . We through it through friends, neighbors, maybe our own family. Man and woman in have a child, miscarriages, other obstacles that prevent it. And there is a hole in their hearts, a hole in their homes and their families. Fertility and childbirth. Yjs of this measure very simply guarantees the rightamilies eve alabama and connecticut, in every state in thisountry to access the fertility care they need to