Nevada lawmakers move to protect IVF treatments
Nevada Senate Democrats introduced a bill Wednesday to protect and expand access to in vitro fertilization treatments.
Senate Bill 217, sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Nicole Cannizzaro and other Democratic senators, would establish a statutory right to IVF treatment in Nevada law.
“IVF can make successful pregnancies a reality for families who might otherwise be unable to have a baby, and it deserves strong legal protections,” Cannizzaro said in a statement.
She added that Congress hasn’t done enough to protect IVF, and said, “Nevada will stand up for people affected by infertility and their rights to access the medical treatments they may need to start a thriving family.”
According to data from the National Library of Medicine, IVF accounts for 1.6 percent of all live births in the United States. Since 1978, more than 5 million children worldwide have been conceived via in vitro fertilization.
Democrats both at a state level and in Congress have expressed concerns that access to assisted reproductive technology could be impacted in a Republican majority government. In Congress, Nevada’s Democratic members joined federal legislation that would protect access to IVF.
The legislation would prohibit a governmental entity from implementing any limitation or requirement that burdens people’s access to IVF or other fertility treatments, according to the bill text. It also prohibits a government from limiting the abilities of IVF providers and insurance providers to either provide treatment or give coverage.
SB 217 would also increase protections for providers of fertility treatments and expand coverage requirements.
It includes judicial relief a person can take if their access to IVF has been limited in some way, and it says that a person who receives IVF treatments or provides it is not subject to civil or criminal liability because they received or provided the care.
The bill also contains a provision that says a fertilized egg or human embryo that exists before implantation is not a human being under Nevada law.
Last year, the Alabama Supreme Court ruled embryos should be considered as children, and that couples who lost frozen embryos during an accident at a storage facility could sue the clinic and hospital for wrongful death. That ruling caused clinics to pause their services.
Infertility affects 1 in 6 couples, according to Amanda Klein, founder of Nevada Fertility Advocates.
“Family building is not a partisan issue — it’s a human one,” Klein said in a statement. “We urge leaders on both sides of the aisle to stand with us in supporting this vital step forward.”
Contact Jessica Hill at jehill@reviewjournal.com. Follow @jess_hillyeah on X.
