Amid legal and legislative risks to in vitro fertilization from Jeff City and Washington and opposition to protections led by Senator Josh Hawley, Kunce says Trump’s free IVF proposal is a “no-brainer” for Missouri families.
SEPT 12, 2024 | 8:04 AM
Independence, MO — Lt. Col. Lucas Kunce (USMCR, 13 years active duty) announced that in addition to his support for the Right To IVF Act, Kunce also supports former president Donald Trump’s zero-cost IVF proposal for “all Americans that need it” and would work to enact both proposals if elected to the U.S. Senate.
“Missourians should be in charge of how they live their lives and build their families, not Big Brother politicians, radical judges, or greedy insurance companies,” said Kunce. “If health insurance companies could afford $140 billion in stock buybacks as Washington wasted trillions on corporate handouts and pointless wars, making IVF free while prohibiting unfair increases to premiums or co-pays is a no-brainer for Missouri families. In the Senate, I’ll work with any president and any member of Congress to get this done, regardless of party.”
Millions of American families and hundreds of thousands of Missouri women and couples are affected by infertility. Access to IVF and other fertility treatments face both prohibitive cost barriers for working-class families and threats to the treatment’s very existence from anti-IVF activist lawyers, judges, and out-of-touch politicians like Josh Hawley — who opposed protections for IVF, is a pioneer in the legal movement threatening IVF access, and would allow politicians to enact restrictions on IVF both nationwide and in Missouri.
More background here:
- The Guardian | Hawley’s anti-abortion arguments echoed in Alabama IVF case: “Hawley said the morning-after pill, ‘may induce an abortion by preventing implantation of a fertilized egg’, in effect the same logic accepted by justices at the Alabama supreme court that led to shutdowns of IVF.”
- Missouri Independent | ‘No protection’: Missouri advocates sound alarm after IVF safeguards stymied in legislature: “Despite outcries from families following the temporary shuttering of IVF in Alabama earlier this year, Missouri lawmakers failed to pass legislation guaranteeing the procedure.”
- Missourinet | Hawley says he supports IVF access despite voting ‘no’ on Senate bill: Hawley: “There are ethical concerns”
- Missouri Independent | Former Missouri Supreme Court Justice Michael Wolff: “Missouri’s life-begins-at-conception law also seems to outlaw in vitro fertilization (IVF), the medical process that enables many infertile couples to conceive and bear children. If citizens of Missouri wish to protect this procedure then there will need to be a new law. […] caution when politicians throw words around to assure us falsely that all is well with IVF and women’s emergency health care.”
- STUDY | Striking Costs of Infertility Point to Importance of IVF Access and Affordability: “…in the U.S., a single cycle can cost as much as $30,000. So when health insurance doesn’t cover it, IVF is prohibitively expensive for many—especially among couples with lower incomes.”
- NBC News | An uptick in state personhood bills fuels growing fears over IVF restrictions: “In Missouri, state law broadly defines life as beginning ‘at conception,’ and says that every ‘unborn child at every stage of development’ is afforded ‘all the rights, privileges, and immunities available to other persons, citizens, and residents’ of the state.”
- Washington Post | Republicans who say they support IVF backed a bill protecting life ‘at conception’: “…has no provisions for processes like in vitro fertilization.”
- AP | Infertility is common in the US, but insurance coverage remains limited: “The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that it affects nearly one in five married girls or women between the ages of 15 and 49.”