Michigan GOP senate candidate Justin Amash voted to restrict IVF

Republican senate candidate Justin Amash talks a lot about his political independence, but a review of his record shows a litany of anti-abortion votes that are in-lock step with the most extreme members of his party.

Amash represented Michigan’s third congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2011 to 2021. In 2019, he left the Republican party to become an independent. He rejoined the GOP when he launched his bid for Michigan’s open U.S. Senate seat on Feb. 29.

In 2009, when Amash was serving in the Michigan House of Representatives, he co-sponsored legislation to strictly regulate in vitro fertilization. House Bill 5133 would’ve required IVF patients to sign consent forms acknowledging how frozen embryos are created, stored, and handled. Clinics providing those services would then be subject to onerous reporting requirements, including telling the state how many IVF implantations a patient received and if they had any miscarriages.

House Bill 5133 was backed by the anti-abortion group Michigan Right To Life. The bill did not pass. 

In congress, Amash received an A+ rating from the Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America group, which scores lawmakers on how anti-abortion they are. The group celebrated Amash’s co-sponsoring of a 2019 bill that sought to ban taxpayer funding for abortion care. They also noted Amash’s opposition to the Equality Act which would’ve classified efforts to ban abortion as discrimination.

Amash briefly considered running for president in 2020 as a Libertarian. In 2022, he pitched himself as a potential “nonpartisan” Speaker of the House candidate. Amash celebrated this supposed independent streak in his campaign announcement for Michigan’s open U.S. Senate seat.

“Regardless of who wins the White House and Congress, the United States will remain deeply polarized,” Amash said. “What we need is not a rubber stamp for either party, but an independent-minded senator prepared to challenge anyone and everyone on the people’s behalf.”

An Amash spokesperson did not immediately respond to questions for this story.