Rep. Susie Lee fights to protect reproductive freedom after three miscarriages and IVF

Susie Lee knows the heartbreak of not being able to start a family without IVF. That’s why she’s making defending women’s reproductive rights a major campaign issue.

Fighting to protect reproductive freedom is deeply personal to US Rep. Susie Lee. 

The Congresswoman would not have her two beloved children if not for In-vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment, which has come under attack from far-right conservatives this year. 

Alabama’s Supreme Court issued a ruling in February declaring embryos had the same rights as children, a move that threatened to limit or eliminate access to IVF treatments in the state.

While additional legislation was passed to protect Alabama IVF clinics and patients from criminal charges for damaging or destroying unused embryos—a common occurrence during the IVF process, as embryos are screened for viability—the initial ruling underscored broader concerns about how anti-abortion groups might take aim at the fertility industry and broader reproductive healthcare, especially in the event of a second presidential term for Donald Trump.

“I’ve had three miscarriages. Both my children are in vitro,” Lee told The Nevadan in an interview. “I understand more than anyone how complicated pregnancies could be and I can’t imagine, I literally cannot imagine being in a state where I needed a D&C when I had a miscarriage, where I couldn’t get it. And we’ve seen women’s lives at risk because of that.”

The Dilation & Curettage (D&C) procedure which the Democratic Congresswoman is referring to is used to clear the uterine lining after a miscarriage or an abortion in order to prevent infection, as well as in cases of dangerously excessive bleeding.

Many women and their husbands in the 22 states which have banned or severely restricted abortion since the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022 have spoken out after they almost almost died when they were refused D&C procedures while they were miscarrying, even in cases where their fetuses no longer had a heartbeat.

Lee, who has represented Nevada’s 3rd Congressional since 2019, is putting the Republican attack on abortion access and on all women’s reproductive healthcare center stage as an issue in her 2024 race.

Currently, abortion is protected in Nevada within the first 24 weeks of pregnancy and after that if a physician feels that an abortion is necessary to protect the health or life of the mother.

But that protection could end if Trump is elected president and a Republican House and Senate pass a national ban. If Trump is in the White House, he will also have a number of other avenues to end or restrict abortion nationwide, including by ordering the Justice Department to enforce the 1873 Comstock Act.

The Comstock Act would make it illegal for both prescription abortion pills and surgical equipment used in abortion procedures to be shipped across state lines. Trump could also instruct his Food and Drug Administration  chief to try and withdraw both abortion pills — mifepristone and misoprostol — from the market.

Both these avenues to end abortion are outlined in Project 2025, which has been written by Trump allies, including 140 former Trump administration officials, as a highly detailed 900-page plan for Trump to govern.

“I think abortion is a very potent issue in the state and we know that,” Lee said. “One, it’s a healthcare issue. Two, it’s a freedom issue. And people in our state get it… let a woman make that decision.”

“I mean, why do I need some dude sitting in Alabama or who doesn’t even know me making a decision?”

Lee’s Republican opponent, however, appears to be just fine with that situation.

Drew Johnson is running against the Congresswoman in a highly competitive race. He approves of the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision overturning Roe, which has ultimately led roughly one-third of American women to lose the ability to make their own reproductive healthcare decisions.

While abortion remains protected in Nevada, the state is seeing the “downstream” effects of abortion bans in three neighboring states,  Arizona, Idaho, and Utah.

“We’ve seen a 30% increase in women from out of state coming here. This is a state that already struggles with an OB/GYN shortage,” Lee pointed out. ”But ultimately we are a freedom-loving, independent state and this is an attack on women’s freedom.

“And this is basically saying, some judge or Lindsey Graham or someone else knows better than me what’s good, what the right decision for my body is, and I’ll call BS on that.”

Many Nevadans agree with Lee, and already took the first step in standing up to the Republican attacks on women’s reproductive freedom. More than 200,000 of them signed petitions so that a ballot measure protecting abortion could be added to the state’s ballot in November.

The proposal would amend the state constitution to guarantee Nevadans “a fundamental right to (an) abortion performed or administered by a qualified healthcare practitioner until fetal viability, or when needed to protect the life or health of the pregnant patient, without interference from the state or its political subdivisions.”

Lee, a staunch supporter of abortion rights and of all women’s reproductive health rights in Congress, was thrilled when the Nevada Secretary of State’s office announced that the abortion amendment question had met all the legal requirements to be added to the ballot in November.  

“This is a huge step forward for Nevada women and families. But far-right extremists aren’t going to stop trying to ban abortion nationwide — including here in Nevada. November is our chance to fight back”, she said in a post on X (formerly Twitter) in late June.

If the amendment receives 51% of the votes from Nevadans who cast a ballot in November, it will appear on the ballot once again in November 2026. Then if it passes again, the right to abortion until fetal viability (usually around 24 weeks) would be enshrined into the state Constitution, providing an extra layer of protection from future state bans or restrictions.

In the meantime, Lee has introduced legislation along with Nevada Senator Catherine Cortez Masto to fund ‘patient navigators’ across the country to help women find the reproductive health care services they need, due to the shortage of OB/GYNs. The bill has not passed Congress.

She also voted in support of The Women’s Health Protection Act of 2022, which would have restored the right to an abortion nationwide, and the Ensuring Access to Abortion Act of 2022, which would have protected women traveling across state lines to access abortion care. Neither have made it through the Senate, though they passed the House when it was under Democratic control.

Meanwhile, Trump and the Republican party are taking aim at not just restricting abortion, but also potentially targeting IVF and many forms of birth control nationwide.The plans to do so are in Project 2025 and in the 2024 Republican Party platform — both of which support the right of the “unborn” to “Life”.

Since the “unborn” include fertilized eggs, IVF procedures — which can at times destroy fertilized eggs — would have to be banned.

While Trump is now desperately trying to distance himself from Project 2025, his new VP pick JD Vance penned the foreword to an upcoming book by the architect of Project 2025, Kevin Roberts. Roberts is the president of the Heritage Foundation, the far-right organization which oversaw the creation of Project 2025.

Vance is also on record supporting a national abortion ban. He supports enforcing the Comstock Act to end abortion and voted against The Right To IVF Act, which would have enshrined protections for IVF into federal law.

All of this Republican obsession with curtailing women’s reproductive choices is “insane,” Lee said. “I think it’s crazy.” 

“We’re going to continue to make this an issue about freedom. And I personally believe that when you see democracies go down, the first group of people whose rights get trampled on are women. So they’re not unrelated. And I believe women in the state understand it,” she added.

“Listen, we are a state with the first women majority legislature, the first women majority Supreme Court … Nevadans get it. It’s going to be a major issue and it’s certainly going to be an issue in my race.”

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