Senator Reverend Warnock: “Reproductive rights are under attack in this country from all angles — whether it’s women who choose to end a pregnancy or women who are choosing to start a family, they’re meeting opposition from bad-faith actors who aren’t interested in letting people live their lives on their terms”

Senator Reverend Warnock: “It’s ironic that the people who claim to defend life are so adamantly opposed to giving people the opportunity to create it”

Watch the full news conference HERE

Washington, D.C. – This week, U.S. Senator Reverend Raphael Warnock (D-GA) joined a group of his Senate Democratic colleagues on the steps of the U.S. Capitol to push their Republican colleagues to pass legislation that would protect access to in-vitro fertilization (IVF) in all 50 states. During the news conference, Senator Warnock and his colleagues held up photos of individuals and families from their states whose lives had benefited from IVF, underscoring the people at the center of the policy debate happening in Washington, and highlighted the hypocrisy of Senate Republicans who profess to support IVF but have refused to pass legislation that would protect access to the procedure for anyone who needs it. The news conference preceded a second attempt in the Senate this year to consider and pass the Right to IVF Act, cosponsored by Senator Warnock, that would guarantee access to IVF. The majority of Senate Republicans voted on Tuesday to block the bill from being considered on the floor.  

“The fact is that many of my Washington Republican colleagues have long been trying to take away women’s reproductive freedoms, following the leader of their party. First, the overturning of Roe v. Wade took away a fundamental freedom that women have relied on for decades, and then earlier this week, the same crop of lawmakers who cheered that ruling, who call themselves ‘pro-family,’ blocked a bill that would help people grow their families,” Senator Warnock said following the failed vote. “My Republican colleagues who helped block this progress don’t seem to be listening to the majority of the American people who want to protect IVF, so I trust that the American people will use their voices at the ballot box to protect IVF.”

At the press conference, Senator Warnock held up a photo of Dr. Maya Eady McCarthy, known as “Dr. Maya,” an Atlanta based pediatric hospitalist and mother of a daughter, Charlotte, born thanks to IVF.

“As a physician, I have dedicated my life to caring for Georgia’s children and when it came time to have my own, my husband and I were met with a brick wall. IVF gave us hope and the opportunity to bring life into this world. I am forever grateful,” said Dr. Maya.

Dr. Maya and her daughter Charlotte

Since arriving to the Senate, Senator Reverend Warnock has been a staunch defender of women’s rights, bodily autonomy, and maternal health care. In addition to cosponsoring Senator Duckworth’s Right to IVF Act, Senator Reverend Warnock has also introduced legislation to help lower the maternal mortality rate for women of color, restore Georgians’ right to abortion access, and protect the right to seek reproductive health care across state lines.  

###