Protect IVF Act

The "Protect IVF Act" establishes comprehensive statutory rights to ensure access to fertility treatments across the United States. Its primary purpose is to permit patients to seek and receive fertility treatment, and for healthcare providers, health insurance issuers, and manufacturers to provide, cover, and market related services and products without unwarranted state limitations. The bill aims to protect individual decision-making regarding fertility care, ensuring it aligns with widely accepted and evidence-based medical standards of care . The Act broadly defines "fertility treatment" to include services such as the preservation of reproductive genetic material (oocytes, sperm, embryos), artificial insemination, in vitro fertilization (IVF), genetic testing of embryos, and fertility medications. These rights extend to individuals making decisions about the donation, testing, use, storage, or disposition of their own reproductive genetic material. Healthcare providers are granted the right to offer these services, and health insurance issuers can choose to cover them, all in accordance with guidelines from the American Society for Reproductive Medicine. To enforce these rights, the bill empowers the Attorney General to initiate civil actions against states or entities that implement conflicting limitations. Additionally, it establishes a private right of action , allowing any individual or entity adversely affected by a violation to seek relief in federal court. Courts are authorized to award equitable relief, including injunctive relief, along with litigation costs and reasonable attorney's fees to prevailing plaintiffs. The legislation explicitly preempts any state law, whether statutory or common law, that conflicts with the established federal rights, regardless of when the state law was adopted. However, this preemption does not apply to state laws that resolve disputes over reproductive genetic material between individuals or those that further protect an individual's right to receive fertility treatment. The Act also clarifies that compliance with federal regulations from agencies like the FDA, regarding drugs and devices used in fertility treatment, does not constitute a violation.