00:00 My girls are my everything, but I likely would not have ever been able to have them had I
00:08 not had access to basic reproductive rights that Americans, up until recently, had been
00:13 depending on for decades.
00:15 Because after a decade of struggle with infertility post my service in Iraq, I was only able to
00:20 get pregnant through IVF.
00:22 IVF is the reason that I've gotten to experience the chaos and beauty, the stress and the joy
00:27 that is motherhood.
00:28 IVF is the reason that my husband and I aren't just Tammy and Brian, we're mom and dad.
00:36 But for countless hopeful parents, that desperately sought after dream of becoming a parent just
00:40 became so much harder.
00:42 Last week, Alabama's Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos created through IVF should
00:48 be considered children under state law.
00:51 A ruling based on extreme ideology rather than on medical science.
00:56 And one that throws IVF access into chaos for countless women as they and their doctors
01:00 try to figure out whether they might be criminalized for simply trying to start a family.
01:05 If you're thinking that this makes no sense, you're right.
01:09 The very people who claim to be defending family values are actively trying to enact
01:14 policies that would actually prevent Americans from creating those families.
01:18 I know I'm not alone when I struggle to understand how politicians who support this kind of policy
01:23 can possibly call themselves pro-life.
01:26 After Roe v. Wade was overturned, actually even before then, when Donald Trump promised
01:31 to only appoint justices who would overturn it, I warned that red states would come for
01:35 IVF.
01:37 And now they have.
01:38 But they aren't just going to stop in Alabama.
01:41 Mark my words, if we don't act now, it will only get worse.
01:46 That's why tomorrow I'm headed to the Senate floor to call on my colleagues to pass via
01:50 unanimous consent my Access to Family Building Act, which would ensure that every American's
01:55 right to become a parent via treatments like IVF is fully protected, regardless of what
02:00 state they live in, guaranteeing that no hopeful parent or doctor is punished.
02:06 We face a lot of tough calls as senators.
02:08 This just isn't one of them.
02:10 Republicans own what happened in Alabama.
02:13 Republicans own the disasters that emanate from Roe v. Wade.
02:17 And Democrats are absolutely committed to doing everything, everything we can to protect
02:23 women, families, reproductive freedom.
02:27 Republicans will learn when it comes to attacks on personal freedoms, the American people
02:34 do not easily forget.
02:36 If Republicans seriously want to help fix the chaos and devastation they have worked
02:40 so hard to create, they can help us restore the rights enshrined in Roe, which they overturned,
02:46 to make all this possible, and they can help us pass legislation to protect and expand
02:52 IVF care.
02:53 And our bill, the Access to Family Building Act, is a great place to start.
02:57 It just does not get more straightforward than this.
03:00 If Republicans seriously support the right to build families through IVF, they can prove
03:06 it tomorrow on the floor.
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