Nancy Mace is introducing a resolution expressing support for IVF — but it doesn’t do anything to actually protect the procedure

Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina at the Capitol on October 10, 2023.

AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana

GOP Rep. Nancy Mace is introducing a resolution supporting IVF in the wake of the Alabama ruling.Business Insider obtained a copy of the resolution, which doesn’t actually protect the procedure.Mace once cosponsored the Life at Conception Act, which potentially threatens IVF.

Rep. Nancy Mace is set to introduce a resolution this week expressing support for in vitro fertilization (IVF) in the wake of an Alabama Supreme Court ruling that has put the procedure at risk in the state.

The South Carolina Republican’s resolution is nonbinding, meaning it would not have any effect on federal law if passed.

The text of the resolution notes that the Alabama court’s ruling, which found that frozen embryos are considered “unborn children,” has jeopardized access to IVF treatments in Alabama. It also calls on elected officials to “proactively pass legislation to protect access to fertility care and assisted reproductive technology, including in vitro fertilization.”

Business Insider obtained a copy of the resolution ahead of its introduction later this week. Mace’s office has given lawmakers until the end of the day on Thursday to cosponsor the bill.

It’s the latest example of Republicans distancing themselves from the Alabama court ruling and expressing public support for IVF, a reproductive treatment that many women rely on to achieve pregnancy.

The treatment involves the fertilization of multiple eggs outside the womb, producing embryos that may later be frozen or discarded. In the wake of the ruling, several clinics in Alabama have suspended IVF programs.

Though Alabama remains the only state affected thus far, the ruling has highlighted the ongoing consequences of anti-abortion efforts on the right in the wake of the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022.

House Speaker Mike Johnson told Business Insider in a statement last week that he supports IVF treatment, and lawmakers and elected officials in Alabama have moved to protect the procedure at the state level.

“I believe the life of every single child has inestimable dignity and value,” said Johnson. “That is why I support IVF treatment, which has been a blessing for many moms and dads who have struggled with fertility.”

Yet Johnson and 124 other Republicans have cosponsored the Life at Conception Act, a bill stating that the term “human being” includes “all stages of life, including the moment of fertilization, cloning, or other moment at which an individual member of the human species comes into being.”

That bill does not include any carveout for IVF — a fact that Democrats have seized on given that a 2017 Senate version of the bill specifically ruled out a “prohibition on in vitro fertilization.”

Mace cosponsored the bill during the last Congress, though she has argued that the legislation would not outlaw IVF.

Democrats, meanwhile, have pointed towards the “Access to Family Building Act,” a bill that would codify protections for IVF into federal law.

Sen. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois is set to seek unanimous consent in the Senate to pass the bill on Thursday.

A spokesperson for Mace did not immediately respond to Business Insider’s request for comment, including whether the congresswoman supports the Access to Family Building Act.