Gottheimer announces new legislation to protect IVF and stop far-right extremist war on women’s healthcare

PARAMUS BOROUGH, NJ (Bergen County) —  U.S. Congressman Josh Gottheimer Wednesday announced new legislation — the Securing Access to Fertility Everywhere Act or SAFE Act — to protect access to in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatments in New Jersey and across the nation.

This follows the Alabama Supreme Court ruling that frozen embryos are children, forcing IVF providers across Alabama to shut their doors.

Gottheimer also called on the Speaker of the House to stand up to the band of the ultra-right in his own party and prevent a government shutdown. A government shutdown would affect everyone from veterans looking for a job or mental health care when they come home, to our seniors who depend on Meals on Wheels, to vulnerable families who use community health centers, to children who rely on school breakfast and lunch, WIC, and Head Start. It will imperil local law enforcement and our national security, halting key defense and military projects.

Gottheimer Announcements Today to Protect Women’s Access to Healthcare:

• First, Gottheimer announced new legislation, the Securing Access to Fertility Everywhere Act, or SAFE Act, which will protect a family’s access to IVF treatments and protect IVF providers.
  • This new law will shield doctors, nurses, and hospitals prescribing IVF from being held liable for state wrongful death claims in processing and transporting embryonic cells.

• Second, Gottheimer is helping lead in the House the bicameral “Access to Family Building Act,” which will establish a right for women to access reproductive medical care, including IVF, and for health providers to provide these services. This bill is coming for a vote this week in the Senate.

• Third, Gottheimer will continue fighting to codify Roe v. Wade into law. In the House, Gottheimer cosponsored and voted for the “Women’s Health Protection Act,” which the House passed two years ago.
  • Gottheimer is also working to pass his Freedom to Decide Act, which reiterates that access to Mifepristone does not violate federal law, and that the abortion pill should be able to be prescribed and shipped to states that have outlawed reproductive freedom, even in cases of rape, incest, and the health of the mother.

“What Alabama is doing, what many states are doing – what extremists in Congress, unfortunately, are doing – is conducting a war on women’s healthcare, and a war on women’s reproductive freedom,” Gottheimer said. “Even after Dobbs, I never imagined that states, with support of the courts, would attempt to ban IVF – a medical procedure that allows hundreds of thousands of moms and dads to have a baby, and build a family, every year in our great country. Today, with new legislation in Congress, we are making one thing clear to them: not so fast. We will protect reproductive freedom. We will protect IVF. We will protect moms and dads and modern medicine and health care.”

Gottheimer was joined by Bergen County Commissioner Vice Chairwoman Mary Amoroso, President of Valley Health System Dr. Robert Brenner, Valley Hospital Medical Director of Reproductive Endocrinology/Infertility Dr. Ali Nasseri, and Valley Hospital Chair of Women Services Dr. Tia Welsh.