In this July 8, 2015, file photo, Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., looks to members of the media as she and other Senate Democrats speak to media after a policy luncheon on Capitol Hill in Washington, July 8, 2015
(Photo: Carolyn Kaster/AP)

The men and women who enlist in the military do so for a variety of reasons. These reasons range from the desire to fight for their country, to receiving a college education, to following in their family military lineage.  Regardless of the reasons they are willing to be placed in harm’s way and risk their lives.

According to the Office of Veteran Affairs, more than 970,000 service members are physically scarred and injured. With all the U.S. government taxpayer resources, one would think that these veterans would have their health and wellness taken care of, including the assistance to build a family through the help of fertility treatments.

Well, think again.

According to Alan Fram from the Associated Press, Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., removed the fertility bill from the controversial senate floor.

Fram wrote, “With partisan battling over abortion on the rise, a Democratic senator withdrew a bill Wednesday expanding government fertility services for wounded veterans and blamed what she said was a Republican attack on women’s health care.” He continued, “A GOP senator said the changes he was pushing were designed to set priorities for an overburdened Department of Veterans Affairs.”

Convoluted as this may seem, one of the issues pushing this bill off tabletop considerations had to do with “secretly recorded videos” taping officials from Planned Parenthood. On tape were discussions of how research could be conducted by using organs of aborted fetuses.

There was a divide with one side pointing blame and the other saying that the videos were tampered with and out of context.

What exactly does this above scenario have to do with helping veterans who are struggling from infertility build families?  Absolutely nothing, that’s what.

These men and women who serve our country endure horrifying injuries on behalf of the United States and the military. And if they have trouble conceiving, IVF isn’t covered for them?

And this bill, which would have corrected this, had to be withdrawn because of partisan politics.

In the article, Murray was quoted saying that she had expected the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee to easily approve her bill on Wednesday. But in a Senate floor speech, Murray said she was, “…withdrawing the measure because Republicans decided ‘to leap at the opportunity to pander to their base’ by offering amendments designed to ‘roll back the clock and take away women’s health care options.’”

Fram wrote that Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., authored amendments to this particular bill.

Tillis said, “…he wanted to make sure the VA improves existing programs for veterans before Congress burdens it with new duties.”

Helping women and men become parents through IVF is a burden of a new duty and not a right? We as Americans have the responsibility to help veterans return back to a life of normalcy, and for many, this is through parenthood.

To deny these basic human privileges just because of a “three-ring circus show” in the Senate is not a justifiable excuse to remove this bill.

Couples, who are in the throes of infertility, don’t care about Planned Parenthood and right-to-life issues. Currently, that’s the furthest thing from their minds.

All they want is a family. Apparently, IVF is too much to ask for.