Do you care about IVF access in Nevada? These senators have a plan to protect it.

A group of Nevada Democrats wants to protect in vitro fertilization (IVF) in the state—and they want to make it more accessible for people to get.

They’ve introduced Senate Bill 217, which would create a new law protecting Nevadans’ right to IVF. It would also protect health care providers from criminal or civil penalties for providing infertility treatments.

IVF is a medical procedure that allows people to conceive a child when they are unable to through traditional methods.

Right now, IVF is legal in Nevada—but as a form of reproductive health care, it’s been widely debated by Republicans at the state and national level. Court rulings in other states have even briefly criminalized the procedure. For example, the Alabama Supreme Court issued a ruling in February 2024 declaring that embryos created through IVF should be considered children. That ruling was problematic because some of the embryos created during IVF may be damaged or destroyed, and that could have had legal consequences.

SB 217 would directly refute any such decisions in Nevada. Here’s an excerpt from the bill:

“Any fertilized human egg or human embryo that exists in any form before implantation in the uterus of a human body is not an unborn child, a minor child, a person, a natural person, or any other term that connotes a human being for any purpose under the law or regulations of this State or any political subdivision thereof.”

The bill further prohibits the government from creating burdens on people seeking and providing IVF, and allows anyone experiencing such interference to take the issue to court. Courts would be authorized to award damages against governmental entities found to have interfered with assistive reproduction services.

Roughly 2% of children born in Nevada in 2021 were conceived with the help of assisted reproductive technology, according to data from the Department of Health and Human Services, and countless hopeful parents across the state are going through IVF treatments every day.

The Senate Democrats additionally included language in SB 217 to improve accessibility to IVF in Nevada, which currently doesn’t exist. For example, the new law would require public and private insurance companies to cover assisted reproduction  treatments, including treatments that would allow people to have children at a later time, such as freezing their eggs.

SB 217 is currently being reviewed by a Senate committee. Democrats hold majorities in the Nevada Assembly and Senate, so it’s likely to pass both chambers. Gov. Joe Lombardo is a Republican—yet he has voiced support for IVF in the past.

A spokesperson for Lombardo told The Nevada Independent last year that the governor “agrees that IVF treatment shouldn’t be a political issue, and he supports protecting the rights of individuals trying to build their families.” It’s not yet clear whether that support would translate into the governor signing the bill into law.

For the record, the group of senators who introduced SB 217 includes:

• Sen. Nicole Cannizzaro (D-Las Vegas)
• Sen. Rochelle Nguyen (D-Las Vegas)
• Sen. Melanie Scheible (D-Las Vegas)
• Sen. Julia Pazina (D-Las Vegas)
• Sen. Marilyn Dondero Loop (D-Las Vegas)

The bill additionally has eight Democratic co-sponsors.