It’s part of a push by Democrats to highlight the electoral contrast over reproductive rights. Before the vote, GOP senators said they favor legal IVF but prefer a narrower bill.

Senate Republicans blocked a Democratic-led bill Thursday to codify broad federal protections for in vitro fertilization in the midst of a growing partisan clash over reproductive rights in the United States.

The vote was 48-47, with just two Republicans voting for it: Sens. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and Susan Collins, R-Maine. Others in the GOP said the legislation went too far, instead signing on to a scaled-back version that Democrats said was ineffectual.

The Right To IVF Act was brought up for a vote by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., to put the GOP in a political predicament less than five months before the 2024 elections. Democrats say the conservative-led Supreme Court’s decision in 2022 to eliminate federal abortion rights means that access to contraception and IVF are also at risk.