Federal Bill Guarantees Right to Fertility Treatments, Overriding State Restrictions

The newly proposed Access to Family Building Act aims to establish a clear, nationwide right to Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) treatments. If passed, this bill essentially federalizes access to fertility care, ensuring that patients can start, continue, or finish ART treatments based on a written plan with their doctor, without facing unreasonable interference from state or local governments.

The Right to Plan Your Family

For anyone currently navigating the complex and expensive world of fertility treatments—whether that’s IVF, egg freezing, or similar procedures—this bill is designed to cut through red tape. The core mechanism is Section 4, which creates a statutory right for patients to access ART and for healthcare providers to perform these services and share medically sound information. This means if your state or county tries to pass a rule that makes it harder, more expensive, or outright impossible to access an established fertility treatment, that rule is now vulnerable to a federal lawsuit.

Take, for example, a couple who has frozen embryos stored. If their state were to pass a restrictive law that limits the use or disposition of those embryos, this federal Act gives them immediate standing to sue in federal court to block that state law. The bill also includes a huge incentive for enforcement: if you or your provider successfully sue a state official to strike down a restrictive law, the state must pay your legal costs and attorney fees. This provision, detailed in Section 4(b), makes fighting back against bad policy much more feasible for regular people.

Provider Protections and The Preemption Hammer

It’s not just patients who benefit; healthcare providers and even insurance companies get rights under this Act. Providers are guaranteed the right to perform ART and provide evidence-based counseling. Insurance companies are also explicitly given the right to cover these treatments. This is important because it prevents states from banning the practice of ART or penalizing doctors who offer it.

However, the biggest policy move in this legislation is the preemption clause in Section 5. This section is the bill’s muscle, stating explicitly that the Act overrides any conflicting federal or state law—past, present, or future—that gets in the way of ART access. This is a powerful tool designed to create uniformity across the country. It even overrides other federal laws, like the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, if they conflict with the guaranteed right to access ART. While this strong federal override ensures access, it significantly limits the ability of states to regulate ART, even for reasons beyond mere restriction.

Safety Checks and Legal Gray Areas

Does this mean states can’t regulate fertility clinics at all? Not quite. Section 4(d) allows states to enforce standard health and safety regulations for medical facilities, but only if those rules actually improve safety and if the state can’t achieve that safety goal using a less restrictive method. This puts the burden on the state to prove that any regulation specific to ART is truly necessary for safety, not just a way to discourage the practice.

Because terms like “unreasonably interfered with” and “overly burdensome” are used—terms that are not precisely defined in the text—there will likely be a period of litigation where the courts figure out exactly where the line is drawn between a necessary state safety rule and an illegal restriction. For now, what’s clear is that this Act aims to make the path to building a family through ART much smoother and legally protected nationwide.