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Join RESOLVE’s leadership team for an in-depth look at what it takes to pass pro-family legislation, protect IVF, and what we’re up against.
HOSTS
President & CEO, Barb Collura
Chief Engagement Officer, Betsy Campbell
Chief External Affairs Officer, Rebecca Flick
ABOUT RESOLVE
RESOLVE: The National Infertility Association is the largest non-profit patient advocacy organization in the country focusing on increasing access to all family building options through insurance coverage and policy changes as well as protecting fertility care like IVF from legislation.
Hi there. This is Rebecca Flick. I'm one of your hosts of Infertility Discourse, a podcast from RESOLVE, the National Infertility Association.
Barb Collura:Hello. This is Barb Collura Guess what? It's a rainy Wednesday. It's not a rainy Friday.
Barb Collura:We usually do these on Fridays, but it's a rainy Wednesday.
Rebecca Flick:Yeah. So we're gonna bring you a a quick update. This will not be a full episode, quite frankly, because there is a lot going on and
Barb Collura:I don't have time.
Rebecca Flick:Have yeah. We did not have the time to create to, produce a full episode, but we wanted to come on, give you a quick update on some things that are happening, around our issues, especially, with the senate and in congress. And, you know, a gentle reminder that resolve is a 501c3 nonpartisan nonprofit, but our issues need the support of both parties to, gain traction and make an impact. And there's just a lot going on, and and we wanna make sure that we keep our audience updated. So we're gonna get right into it.
Rebecca Flick:Again, this is gonna be a short one, and we'll be back with a full episode in the 1st, weeks of October.
Barb Collura:Reno, Rebecca, on that that comment you just made about the 501c3, I think the biggest thing that people don't understand about a 501c3 is we cannot endorse candidates. We have to be very, very, very careful. We can't get involved in elections nor can we get involved or excuse me. We can get get involved with candidates, and we cannot endorse candidates. We cannot talk about, you know, who we like or who you should vote for.
Barb Collura:We can tell you we can ask you to vote, and we can, for sure educate you about our issues. But we have we have had a lot of people say, gosh. Why aren't you just endorsing one of the candidates? We can't. We just we we can't.
Barb Collura:The IRS does not does not allow us to do that. So I I think that's, something that, Rebecca, we probably should just keep reminding people of because it's it's hard. We're so involved in advocacy. It's hard to know that there's things we can't do.
Rebecca Flick:Right. And but we support good policies and good legislation.
Barb Collura:My gosh. 100%.
Rebecca Flick:That's that's what we're here for. That's what we wanna do for the community. We want you to know what legislation out there, is good for you, and there's a lot going on. And in fact, we have a website update. If you go to our website and you go under current legislation, you can filter by either state or federal.
Rebecca Flick:And if you filter by federal, you'll see I think we have about 14 bills listed in our federal under our federal legislative directory, and we have a
Barb Collura:full It's more than that now because we've added this is what I think you're doing. You're telling that we've added a whole bunch of bills. I think it's up to, like, 20 some.
Rebecca Flick:Oh, that makes sense. Yeah. And so, we've added bills that we, oppose, and we wanted to put that out there, our bills that are introduced in congress that, we do not support and the reasons why. So let's get to this. We're gonna keep again, we gotta keep this short.
Rebecca Flick:Barb has a full day in Washington DC today. I had a full half day yesterday in Washington DC today, so we wanna or yesterday. So we want to, get you updated on that. So yesterday, I left Loudoun County, Virginia, which I don't do often, so it was quite an adventure for me. I headed into DC, and I attended the, press conference put on by senate leadership around the right to IV Act bill.
Rebecca Flick:And, again, this is a bill package. We support all of the bills that are part of the right to IVF act, and it was up for another senate vote yesterday. It was really amazing to be there. We were with some of our our friends in this space, friends at ASRM, ACOG. There were some other other representation there from other groups.
Rebecca Flick:And I think about 20 senators showed up, and they held pictures of families built through IVF. And I sat there, and I got very inspired and very moved because I recognized a lot of the people in those pictures.
Barb Collura:Wow.
Rebecca Flick:And it was so wonderful. I didn't get to see the photo that Elizabeth Warren was holding full on, but I saw later that it was our friend Kate, executive director at All Paths. And so that was amazing as well, but we saw friends from Minnesota, and other advocates from around the country who shared their photos with their senators.
Barb Collura:It was crazy because on Monday, we started getting a lot of requests from senators to connect them with advocates and get photos. So Ayesha, Ado, Michelle Chavez, myself, we were we were fielding those requests. Ayesha was was dealing with, I think, Vermont and New Mexico. I was dealing with California. And then on Tuesday, I saw one of the photos that I had helped procure on Monday night, right, and send out to the staffer.
Barb Collura:There it was full on, this beautiful photo of this woman with her with her child. Wow. I mean, to know that we helped make that impactful statement was was, like you said, really, such an honor, but also just, very moving for us to to see that.
Rebecca Flick:So after the press conference, I raced back to make sure I was watching the, senate vote, on the right to IVF Act. And tell us a little bit about what happened there, Barb.
Barb Collura:This is a procedural process that, senate majority leader Schumer put forward to the senate. And, it has to the the every bill that goes before the senate has to first get 60 votes, and that is to allow voting to happen and, cloture. And so we were hoping to get to 60 votes, and and then we would see the real vote happen on the bill. And they started with some floor speeches, both, Republicans and Democrats said a few words, and then they got into voting. The voting itself takes, like, over an hour, and they kind of wander in and cast their vote, and you could see it being tallied on the bottom of the screen.
Barb Collura:I was watching C SPAN, and and we didn't get it. We didn't get to 60 votes. You know, once we hit about 44 no's, obviously, there was no way the math was gonna work for us to get to 60, and, it was, you know, it was very disappointing. I mean, Rebecca, you and I suspected this was what was gonna happen, so it wasn't a total surprise, but you you never you never really know until the votes are counted.
Rebecca Flick:And so what happens after that is well, before the vote, we were encouraging our community to send emails and letters to their senators to support this. And what's interesting between speeches given on the floor of the senate and the responses our advocates get, it allows us to understand what the opposition thinks of this bill. And some things have started, becoming talking points for the opposition that we're gonna definitely start clarifying whether it's within our community or with the media. But I think the biggest one is that the right to IVF Act somehow allows for human cloning.
Barb Collura:Well, that's what they're saying it does.
Rebecca Flick:That's what they're saying. It does not. It does not. And On the record, it does not.
Barb Collura:Boy, that was very clear. We heard this on the floor of the senate in June. We heard it on the floor of the senate earlier in the year when another bill was being debated. And then as you said, we're starting to see it now in when a constituent writes to their representative or senator. Typically, they get a reply back, And it's those reply backs that you're referring to where they're saying, here's why I oppose this bill.
Barb Collura:And then they go into a bunch of information, and we're starting to see this human cloning. I don't even know where this is coming from. I mean, IVF is IVF. It's not human cloning. It's not something that's done.
Barb Collura:It's not allowed. It's, it it absolutely is. I have no idea where this started, but it absolutely does not, allow that. Why would we why would we allow for that? Why would we want that?
Barb Collura:Right. This is an insurance bill, and it's a protection of IVF. So, it it it's frustrating when things come out of, quite honestly, left field, and, you don't even know where to begin to to to defend that and to go up against that because it's so ridiculous. So if you were if you were getting that response, you know, we'd like to know. We wanna be tracking which senators have those talking points, and then we'll work with our partners at ASRM and others to, to come up with some very specific information.
Barb Collura:But it it's absolutely has nothing to do with human cloning.
Rebecca Flick:Alright. Well, what else, quickly is going on in congress? And,
Barb Collura:Well, the vote was a big deal, and I appreciate that you went to the press conference. And and then, of course, they had the vote in the senate. But a few hours before that happened, well, about an hour or so before the press conference in the senate, we got a new bill introduced in the house, and it's the exact same bill that was voted on in the senate called the right to IVF Act as you shared. And it's a package of of 4 different bills, and that had not been as a package, that had not been introduced yet in the house of representatives. So we had 4 representatives who got that done and got that in yesterday.
Barb Collura:My congressman, Jerry Connolly, Susan Wild, she's a congresswoman from Pennsylvania. Rick Larson, he's a congressman from Washington State. And then congresswoman Rosa DeLauro, she's a congresswoman from Connecticut. So Jerry Connelly from Virginia, Susan Wilde, Rick Larson, Rosa DeLauro, those 4 introduced the right to IVF Act in the house of representatives. That happened also yesterday.
Barb Collura:So we had big action in the house and then, of course, this historic vote again in the senate.
Rebecca Flick:So it is busy. It is a busy time. We just ask that you stay alert, stay informed, follow our news and updates on social and in our email.
Barb Collura:Rebecca, can I just say that we have another really important bill in the house of representatives that's bipartisan, and it's, the Hope Act? And this bill is this bill was introduced the end of June. And I feel like it hasn't really gotten the attention it deserves, and and we're gonna we're gonna work really hard to change that.
Rebecca Flick:Gonna add that to the list.
Barb Collura:But this is a bill that is bipartisan. It's right now only introduced in the house of representatives. It is an insurance bill, and it's something that, quite honestly, we haven't seen it in this format ever before. And this is a bill that impacts private insurance, and it would require IVF in employer provided insurance across the country. And so we are very, very excited about this bill.
Barb Collura:I think it's up to around maybe 20 total cosponsors. Right now, the majority of them are Republicans, but we definitely have Democrats on it. We're working very, very hard to get those numbers up. But ironically, a few weeks ago, former president Trump announced that he, if elected, would push for IVF insurance. We don't have any of those details.
Barb Collura:I I we've actually had people reach out to resolve and ask us what what that what the benefits package looks like and what the policy looks like.
Barb Collura:And and we I I just want everyone to know we we know as much as you. We know we have not been in touch with, the Trump campaign or the Republican National Committee nor has has anyone in congress contacted us about this. However, what was so interesting was what he was, at least from what I can tell, what he was pushing for exists in the HOPE Act. Right. So we already have it.
Rebecca Flick:Yes.
Barb Collura:We don't we can get it done now.
Rebecca Flick:We do not have to wait till now.
Barb Collura:We don't have to wait. And and how cool to have exactly that already introduced in a bipartisan fashion in the house of representatives. Wow.
Rebecca Flick:Yep. So there's a lot to get done. It's a a very busy time. So as I was saying, stay connected. Look for ways you can take action.
Rebecca Flick:Keep in touch with us. We'll be back in October with a full episode, and take care. We don't even have any lessons learned this week because it is a constant learning environment for us.
Barb Collura:Wear comfortable shoes when you traipse around Capitol Hill. That's my, lesson learned. And, you know, I I have to share. We'll have to do this on another episode when I when the camera's on. But when I was in Minnesota, everybody knows I went to the state fair.
Barb Collura:I got a, Christmas ornament, and it's a, French onion dip with a chip in it, but it says, oh, for sure. So there was a few times today when you said something, and I in my head went, oh, for sure. And so now I'm gonna just have the little ornament right here by my computer so that I can just say, oh, for sure. Oh, for sure. Everyone, knows that's the Minnesota lingo.
Rebecca Flick:Well, the next in the next episode, I'll I'll bring my jersey out and tell a fun little jersey story.
Barb Collura:Have a really and it's political.
Rebecca Flick:It is political.
Barb Collura:It it's not just all fun and games up there in Jersey Shore.
Rebecca Flick:Yep. Alright. Well, everyone, take good care, and we will talk to you soon.
Barb Collura:Bye.