Democratic Senators Urge RFK Jr. to Reinstate IVF Tracking Team
An embryologist at work at the Virginia Center for Reproductive Medicine in Reston, Virginia.
Photographer: Ivan Couronne/AFP/Getty ImagesMore than a dozen Democratic senators are demanding Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. reinstate the team responsible for tracking success rates for in vitro fertilization treatments across the country.
The letter, signed by 13 Democratic senators including Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York, Ron Wyden of Oregon and Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, is a response to the HHS decision to eliminate the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Assisted Reproductive Technology Surveillance team. The cuts, part of broader layoffs at the agency, came on the heels of President Donald Trump signing an executive order calling for the government to help expand access to fertility treatments. Trump previously campaigned as a “protector” of women and the “father of IVF.”