Washington Post: “The IVF debate has… thrust lawmakers like Perry… into vulnerable political terrain.”

In a new report from the Washington Post, Pennsylvania families are turning against far-right, scandal-ridden Republican Scott Perry, who is back under fire for his extreme record on restricting women’s reproductive rights.

Anti-abortion extremist Perry, “an original co-sponsor of legislation that would enshrine in federal law that human life begins at conception,” has been thrust “into vulnerable political terrain” following backlash from the Alabama Supreme Court ruling restricting IVF.

Facing an “already challenging reelection in a moderate district,” Perry has tried – and failed – to hide his repeated efforts to strip reproductive freedoms from his constituents, including voting against the Right to Contraception Act, the Ensuring Access to Abortion Act, and the Women’s Health Protection Act. 

As a reminder, the Life at Conception Act – which Perry cosponsored – would ban abortion nationwide without exceptions in cases of rape or incest and impose similar restrictions on IVF and fertility treatments as the Alabama Supreme Court ruling.

DCCC Spokesperson Aidan Johnson:
“Scott Perry can try all he wants to hide behind hollow statements, but his legislative record speaks for itself. Pennsylvanians are tired of his anti-abortion, anti-IVF extremism, and the DCCC will ensure that his war on women’s rights will be his downfall this November.”

Washington Post: Democrats hope IVF issue might topple key Republican in Pa. swing seat
Colby Itkowitz | March 10, 2024

• Rep. Scott Perry, a conservative Republican representing a moderate suburban district in the Harrisburg area, insists he supports in vitro fertilization though he sponsored a bill last year that would make it federal law that life begins at conception.

• But some voters in his district, like new mom Ashley Moyer, don’t believe him.

• “I don’t really know how you can support IVF and believe that life begins at conception,” Moyer said. “The two things are very contradictory.”

• Democrats plan to campaign aggressively on the issue, hoping to capitalize on the electoral successes they had after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. The House Majority PAC, a super PAC dedicated to electing Democrats to the House, has identified nine incumbent Republicans, including Perry, in competitive districts who co-sponsored the Life at Conception Act, which says the right to life begins at “the moment of fertilization.”

• The IVF debate has likewise thrust lawmakers like Perry, who is an original co-sponsor of legislation that would enshrine in federal law that human life begins at conception, into vulnerable political terrain as he faces an already challenging reelection in a moderate district.

• A campaign spokesman did not respond to a question about whether his belief that life begins at conception includes embryos created for IVF or whether he would vote for legislation to create federal protections for IVF.

• Democrats view Shapiro’s success in a campaign where abortion was also a key issue as evidence that they can win the seat with a strong candidate who can frame Perry as an extremist threat, much as Shapiro did with Mastriano.

• Perry, in addition to his staunch antiabortion views, was intimately involved in efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, echoing the baseless claims that widespread voter fraud cost Trump reelection. Perry also objected to Congress counting Pennsylvania’s electoral votes for President Biden.

• In December, the nonpartisan Cook Political Report, which tracks swing congressional districts, moved its assessment of the race as being one that would “likely” be won by a Republican to a “lean” Republican district.

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