Senator Murray Responds to Speaker Johnson Working to Strip IVF Coverage for Servicemembers from NDAA, Betraying Trump Promise to Increase Access to IVF

The NDAA provision is based on legislation Senator Murray helped introduce in April; Murray has worked for decades to make IVF more accessible for veterans and servicemembers, leads legislation to help veterans grow their families

Washington, D.C. - Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), a senior member and former chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, released the following statement in response to reporting in MS NOW that House Speaker Mike Johnson is working behind the scenes to strip a provision-based on legislation Senator Murray helped introduce earlier this year- that would mandate TRICARE health care coverage for fertility services, including in vitro fertilization (IVF), for all active-duty servicemembers.

"Right now, servicemembers who risk their lives for our country can't get the same IVF coverage that's available to other federal employees-that's plain wrong, and it's outrageous that once again, Speaker Johnson and his anti-abortion allies are standing in the way of a simple legislative fix. Members of the military face a higher rate of infertility often because of their service to our country, but Republicans want to deny these servicemembers the ability to grow their families.

"Speaker Johnson is among the most extreme anti-abortion radicals in Congress who believes embryos should have the same rights as living, breathing human beings-it's disgraceful but not surprising that he is working behind the scenes to force servicemembers to suffer through infertility rather than grow their families through IVF.

"I'll keep pushing to protect every servicemember's right to IVF-and Donald Trump, who purports to support IVF, should join with Democrats to protect this provision."

In April, Senator Murray joined Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) in introducing the IVF for Military Families Act, new bicameral legislation that would require TRICARE-which provides health coverage to active duty military servicemembers, retirees, and their families-to cover fertility services, including IVF, for servicemembers and their families. The Senate-passed NDAA included a provision that mirrors the IVF for Military Families Act-Speaker Johnson is reportedly working to remove that provision from the final NDAA legislation.

As the daughter of a disabled World War II veteran, Senator Murray knows firsthand the sacrifice that military service demands and has been fighting for over a decade to expand access to IVF care and other fertility services for veterans and servicemembers, and to protect servicemembers' and veterans' access to the reproductive care they deserve. She has introduced multiple pieces of legislation to address the challenges veterans face when starting a family after their service, and in 2012, Senator Murray secured Senate passage of a provision to end the ban on IVF services at VA.

Senator Murray has helped lead the charge in the Senate to protect IVF from Republican attacks for the millions of Americans-including servicemembers and veterans-who rely on it to grow their families. Last Congress, Murray introduced the Right to IVF Act in the Senate-which would establish a nationwide right to IVF and other assisted reproductive technology (ART) and lower the costs of IVF treatment for middle-class families, and includes the Veteran Families Health Services Act. Despite many Republicans publicly claiming to support IVF, nearly every Senate Republican voted against the Right to IVF Act on two separate occasions last year. Overall, Republicans blocked legislation that would protect IVF nationwide three separate times last year.

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