This is Totally Normal Quote of the Day, a feature highlighting a statement from the news that exemplifies just how extremely normal everything has become.
“If you are opposed to abortion, you should be opposed to the practice of IVF.” —Montana Rep. Matt Rosendale, after submitting an amendment to a spending bill that would ban taxpayer funds from going to fertility treatments “including IVF.”
The House of Representatives this week is considering its version of next year’s defense spending bill, and there will be a great many amendment votes on members’ pet issues. Perhaps the most explosive amendment thrown into the mix on Tuesday came from Montana Rep. Matt Rosendale, a far-right Freedom Caucus member and unlikely possessor of the best Maryland accent in Congress. Per Rosendale’s own short description, the amendment “defunds assisted reproductive technology that includes any infertility treatments or technologies including IVF to ensure human life is protected.”
“While I feel for couples that are unable to have children, the practice of IVF is morally wrong, and I refuse to support any legislation that condones its use,” Rosendale said in a statement. “My amendment will strip funding for this practice, which is responsible for the destruction of life to the tune of hundreds of thousands of children a year. If you are opposed to abortion, you should be opposed to the practice of IVF, which destroys twice as much life as Planned Parenthood yearly.”
Did a Democrat pay him to say this? Unclear. Later Tuesday night, the House Rules Committee determined that Rosendale’s amendment would not get a vote after all. That seems like a missed opportunity by Republicans, who ardently maintain that they adore IVF and could have gone on the record against Rosendale’s amendment to prove it. Perhaps—perhaps?—the politics here are a little more complicated than they’d like to admit.
Ever since an Alabama Supreme Court ruling in February prompted providers to pause IVF treatments in the state, GOP leaders have been vocal in declaring that they support continuing the practice. It’s understandable that they would, as banning IVF is about as unpopular of a political position as a party can take.
But that sliver of social conservatives who are hostile to IVF—i.e., the ones who take quite seriously the belief that life begins at conception and must not be tampered with—isn’t a complete nonfactor within Republican politics, and could even be gaining steam. Just this month, the Southern Baptist Convention voted to oppose IVF as practiced because it’s a process in which frozen embryos are often discarded.
Republicans in Congress, though, have continued to try to inoculate themselves on the issue. Sens. Ted Cruz and Katie Britt introduced a bill in May to block states from receiving Medicaid funding should they ban IVF. Democrats, arguing that it still left way too much room for states to restrict IVF, blocked Republicans’ bill; Republicans, meanwhile, blocked Democrats’ broader proposal to ensure IVF access nationally. Ahead of this block-a-thon, all 49 Senate Republicans signed a letter rejecting Democrats’ “Summer of Scare Tactics” on the issue.
“In vitro fertilization is legal and available in every state across our nation,” the letter read. “We strongly support continued access to IVF, which has allowed millions of aspiring parents to start and grow their families.”
The Senate is one thing. But there’s always a crank or two in the House eager and willing to directly contradict the GOP’s national message with a fringe position. That crank is often Rosendale, a widely disliked member on a bipartisan basis. Rosendale was among the thorniest of thorns in the side of ex-Speaker Kevin McCarthy, and defied the entire national Republican apparatus by announcing a Senate primary bid in February. That Senate bid didn’t last long, as Trump quickly endorsed Tim Sheehy in the Montana race and Rosendale dropped out. A few weeks later, Rosendale dropped his House reelection bid citing the toll of “false and defamatory rumors against me and my family.”
In other words, dropping a broadly worded amendment into his party’s lap that, in the member’s own words, “defunds assisted reproductive technology that includes any infertility treatments or technologies including IVF”—emphasis ours—is not out of character for Rosendale.
The House GOP, though, could have seized the moment. If they’d wanted to build their pro-IVF bona fides during election season, they could have given Rosendale his vote and then, save for some fringe figures here or there, voted en masse against it. That they didn’t suggests that their coalitional politics on this issue are more complicated than their cheery rhetorical defenses of IVF would suggest. Though Rosendale will be leaving Congress, this likely won’t be the last time we see such amendments sprouting up. The Southern Baptists weren’t acting in a vacuum.