Embryologist Rick Ross holds a dish with human embryos at La Jolla IVF Clinic in California. Tennessee is poised to become the first and only Southern to codify IVF protection and contraception to the law. (Sandy Huffaker/Getty Images)

In a legislative session dominated by the GOP Supermajority’s conservative agenda, Tennessee lawmakers took the extraordinary, bipartisan step of protecting certain reproductive rights this spring.

Starting July 1, Tennessee will be the first (and only state) to codify the right to access state law for fertility treatment and birth control.

Introduced by two Republican women and signed the law by Gov. Bill Lee, the law protects Tennessee’s access to in vitro fertilization (IVF) and birth control methods, and protects reproductive health options that are not restricted in the state in the modern era, but is now protected in the future.

Among the bill’s supporters, among progressive groups and conservative Republicans who expanded their families through the use of IVF, the law was called the victory necessary to maintain access to care.

“The law provides critical stability and security for women and families in an otherwise unstable political environment,” said Natalie Schilling of Awakened Tennessee, defending children and women’s rights.

However, despite bipartisan support, legislation was largely off track during the final debate in the House. This remains a potential signal for future legislative fights, indicating that some Republicans are already planning to bring in next year.

After the bill passed narrowly in the House, 11 Republicans called the law “a Trojan horse that could undermine Tennessee’s strong and correct attitude on the protection of innocent human lives,” in a letter that failed to veto the bill.

The 11-hour pushback surprised Senator Iris Rudder. Rudder, a Republican from Winchester, resonated with the law with Republican Sen. Becky Massey of Knoxville.

“I thought it was a very simple bill to say they just wanted to codify access to birth control pills and IVF,” she said in an interview with Lookout. “I never thought it would become a mushroom in the way it was mushrooms. It opened my eyes. I really did,” she said.

The law sailed through the Legislative Committee and won a unanimous vote from the state Senate. But by the time he voted for the House floor in early April, many Republican supporters were silent during the debate.

“I was looking at the floor of my house and I was thinking. I’m standing here as a woman. This is a very important issue for women,” Ladder said. “Most of those men are married. They have wives. They have daughters. They should be able to understand how important all of these conversations are to women.”

“Here I ask you to board.”

Fertility treatment and birth control protection methods run only five sentences in length.

“The law in this condition clearly and clearly recognizes the right that health care providers will implement and the right to receive or use fertile treatment and contraceptives for this condition,” it says.

The law was introduced in the aftermath of the first class of Alabama Supreme Court ruling that it jeopardized access to in vitro fertilization (IVF) in that state.

Rudder said she brought the law after women and families across the state begged her to protect IVF access and birth control.

The measure resembles the legislative failures brought last year by Democratic Rep. Harold Love and Memphis Sen. Raumesh Akbari. The bill would have made it clear that Tennessee’s nearly total abortion ban would not put access to fertility treatments or birth control pills at risk.

Unlike the Democratic bill, Infertility treatment and contraceptive protection methods He does not mention the term “abortion.”

Rudder supports the nearly identical abortion ban in Tennessee and considers her laws to be an entirely separate issue.

However, during the House debate over the bill, some Republicans argued that the issues were intertwined.

Rep. Gino Bruso, a Republican from Brentwood, refused to amend the bill “reaffirming that embryos are children” to regulate the disposal of unused embryos in IVF treatments. He argued that, contrary to the nation’s recent anti-abortion history, would create “the right to create and destroy human embryos without qualifications, restrictions or restrictions.”

Jody Barrett, a Republican of Dixon, said he opposed the bill because it would make it difficult for lawmakers to introduce legislation to protect subsequent embryos.

Rep. Chris Todd, a Republican representing Madison County, called the bill “absolutely unnecessary.” He argued that the bill would allow “genetic testing to eliminate embryos with unwanted genetic properties.”

And Rep. Timothy Hill, a Bluntville Republican, pointed out that other groups supporting the American Civil Liberties Union, planned parent-child relationships and abortion rights supported the law and gave him a moratorium.

“The bottom line is to vote today not with colleagues, not with friends, but with organizations that oppose life,” he warned his colleagues on the House floor ahead of the legislative vote.

“Let’s get what the ACLU has issues with. Let’s go back here next year and get it right,” he Sid.

Ladder stood at the well of a bill-abiding house for nearly 45 minutes, but was sometimes emotionally pushed back. She noted that President Donald Trump has shown his support to protect IVF access.

“Yes, I’m your friend,” she told a Republican colleague. “But I’m not standing here as your friend. I’m standing here as a woman who I believe is important to my Tennessee family.

“I want to stand with women in this state and families in this state and have the ability to have these precious babies.

She later said in an interview with the Observatory that she was “naive” thinking she would easily hand over a convened with all her Republican colleagues. She said she was grateful that East Ridge Republican Rep. Ester Helton Hines was standing by the well. “She was the only female lawmaker,” she said.

“When I walked there (the floor of the house), I got 61 votes,” she said. “When I went out I had a 54.

“The conversation went in a different direction,” Ladder said. “When I got caught up in the debate, I wanted them to know that it was so important to women in this state. I think they missed the point.”