Recently, President Trump signed an executive order directing his domestic policy team to make a list of recommendations on “protecting IVF [in vitro fertilization] access and aggressively reducing out-of-pocket and health plan costs for IVF treatment” over the course of the next 90 days.
Sadly, in the United States, difficulty with childbearing has skyrocketed. In 2019, estimates showed 15.4% of women ages 25-49 struggling to get pregnant, and 8.7% of women were infertile. With numbers that high, virtually everyone knows someone who is desperately hoping and praying to have a child.
In his executive order, President Trump speaks of this tragic situation. He wrote, “Today, many hopeful couples dream of starting a family, but as many as one in seven are unable to conceive a child. Despite their hopes and efforts, infertility struggles can make conception difficult, turning what should be a joyful experience into an emotional and financial struggle. My Administration recognizes the importance of family formation and as a Nation, our public policy must make it easier for loving and longing mothers and fathers to have children.”
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Then, the order goes on to talk about the cost and accessibility of IVF and the hope it brings to men and women experiencing fertility challenges.
It’s clear that what President Trump and the seven out of 10 Americans who support access to IVF want is to relieve the heavy cross of infertility. Unfortunately, the multi-billion dollar IVF industry has done a spectacular job of touting itself as the solution.
Certainly, IVF has brought the hope of bearing a child to fruition for a small percentage (23%) of couples who utilize the process. All of us should acknowledge that the millions of children born as a result of IVF are a blessing to their families and to our world. At the same time, however, we must recognize that millions more lives have been lost through this process that treats children as a commodity, not a gift — with estimates suggesting that more than 97% of embryonic children are discarded, miscarried, frozen indefinitely, or donated for use by others or experimentation.
The IVF industry engages in eugenic pre-screening of embryonic children for sex, genetic conditions, or traits such as eye color. It encourages surrogacy and anonymous parenting. It puts the mother’s physical health at risk while doing nothing to treat the cause of infertility, and it relies on the good faith of the completely unregulated IVF industry that charges $12,000-$25,000 per round of IVF (and has over 50 documented cases of intentional fraud and exploitation) to ensure that embryos are not willfully mixed up, that the intended gametes are the ones used, and that the created embryos are treated with respect. Time and time again, the IVF industry has failed to meet these basic standards.
Once explored beyond the promise of a beautiful baby, it’s clear that IVF offers a perverse hope — one that requires the denial of basic human dignity and the destruction of human life.
Thankfully, there are other options for couples facing infertility.
Restorative reproductive medicine — like NaPro, FEMM, and the Billings Ovulation Method — looks for the underlying cause of infertility and actually treats it. Physicians who practice this type of medicine monitor a woman’s physical symptoms, perform extensive bloodwork, and provide medical, and sometimes surgical, treatments and lifestyle changes that restore a woman’s (or her husband’s) health and in doing so, restore the couple’s ability to achieve pregnancy.
These methods work with a woman’s body instead of ignoring an unhealthy system and trying to override it as IVF does. Restorative reproductive medicine is not extraordinarily expensive, and no part of the process infringes upon the dignity of any of the persons involved — including the unborn. There are no eugenic tests, no gametes to mix up, and no “excess” embryonic children to destroy.
Perhaps most importantly, restorative reproductive medicine has a success rate of over 60%, with many couples successfully carrying a pregnancy to term even after failing to conceive via IVF. A listing of centers around the U.S. and the world that offer restorative reproductive medicine can be found here.
President Trump is a staunch defender of the unborn and of families. He is a man of compassion looking to provide hope for couples struggling with infertility. Let’s pray that in the next 90 days, instead of padding the wallets of an industry that exploits and destroys, the domestic policy team has the courage to present President Trump with medical solutions that will actually treat infertility respecting the sanctity of life and make Americans healthy again as it does so.
Originally published at The Washington Stand.
Mary Szoch serves as the Director of the Center for Human Dignity at Family Research Council. In this position, Mary researches, writes, and coordinates collaborative efforts with other pro-life advocates on policies surrounding life and human dignity.
