President Trump announced several policy proposals on Thursday to increase access to in vitro fertilization (IVF).
“In the Trump administration, we want to make it easier for all couples to have babies, raise children and start the families they’ve always dreamed about,” the president asserted, revealing the new actions in a press conference from the Oval Office.
In attendance were Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.; Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary; Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Mehmet Oz; and Senator Katie Britt, R-AL.
President Trump’s policy actions build on an executive order he signed in February to “expand access” to IVF.
The Policy Proposals
According to a fact sheet published by the White House, the actions include:
- An agreement with pharmaceutical manufacturer EMD Serono to make GONAL-F, a common fertility medication, available to women purchasing directly from TrumpRx.gov at a discounted price.
- The FDA including a lower cost fertility drug in the initial round of recipients for the Commissioner’s National Priority Review Voucher program.
- The creation of a New Benefit Option, giving employers a new legal pathway to offer fertility benefits directly to employees, like they do for dental, vision and life insurance coverage. Benefits can include those addressing the root causes of infertility to IVF.
“For the first time ever, we will make it legal for companies to offer supplemental insurance plans specifically for fertility,” the president announced. “This will make all fertility care, including IVF, far more affordable and accessible.”
He opined the action will ultimately reduce the number of couples who need access to IVF.
“By providing coverage at every step of the way, it will reduce the number of people who ultimately need to resort to IVF, because couples will be able to identify and address problems early,” Mr. Trump said.
White House Correspondent Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell asked President Trump whether the new benefits option will provide equal access to “root-cause” infertility treatments.
Heritage Foundation family policy expert Emma Waters praised the inclusion of restorative reproductive medicine (RRM) in the plan.
“[RRM is] an approach that treats infertility itself by addressing contributing conditions like PCOS, endometriosis, and metabolic health,” Waters said.
“[It] lowers miscarriage rates, enables natural conception in many cases, and ultimately helps bring more healthy babies into the world at a lower cost,” she added. “It’s a model that heals women, restores fertility, and delivers on the promise of both better outcomes and greater affordability.”
The president concluded in his remarks from the Oval Office,
The initiatives I’ve just announced are the boldest and most significant actions ever taken by any president to bring the miracle of life into more American homes.
There’s no deeper happiness and joy of raising children, and now millions of Americans struggling with infertility will have a new chance to share the greatest experience of them all.
Moral and Ethical Considerations for IVF
For Christians, we must be discerning while analyzing the policy actions of the Trump administration. We know our ultimate source of truth comes from God, who speaks to us through Scripture. The Bible teaches us many important principles that can help us formulate our views on various assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs).
First, Scripture teaches us that children are a blessing from the Lord (Psalm 127:3).
Second, children have the right to be raised by the married mother and father who created them in the context of a lifelong union (Genesis 2:24).
Third, children’s right to life must be respected from the moment of conception (Jeremiah 1:5).
Fourth, couples struggling with infertility must be treated with the utmost compassion, and given support, as infertility is a great cross to bear (Genesis 30:1).
Fifth, couples struggling with infertility can consider adoption as an entirely virtuous path to parenthood (James 1:27). Scripture repeatedly affirms and upholds the value of adoption; indeed, we are all God’s adopted children (Ephesians 1:5).
These factors are important to consider, since the IVF industry routinely and increasingly treats children as products to be bought, designed, screened, stored and discarded. As it is normally practiced, IVF often violates the rights of children:
- Only around 2.3% of babies created in a lab will be born alive.
- The vast majority will be genetically screened, sex-selected, and graded out of existence.
- “Surplus” embryos are often discarded as medical waste, “donated” (that is, destroyed) to research, or forgotten in freezers.
- Many children lose their right to be known and loved by their mother and/or father through third-party “donor conception” and surrogacy.
Indeed, the “baby-making industry” (fertility clinics) is responsible for the destruction of more human lives every year than the “baby-destroying (abortion) industry.”
For these reasons, Christians must think long and hard before considering IVF. We must be equally discerning when considering public policy actions designed to expand access to IVF.
Focus on the Family affirms the moral and ethical objections to IVF can be reduced in the following ways:
- If IVF is used only by a married man and woman with no third-party involvement (no donor sperm, donor eggs, or surrogacy).
- If fertility clinics create only the number of embryos that can be safely implanted in the mother’s uterus at the time they’re created (none are frozen for future IVF cycles, “selectively reduced,” or donated for research).
- If embryos are not subjected to “grading” to assess an embryo’s potential to successfully implant and grow to live birth (with “unfit” embryos destroyed) or subjected to preimplantation genetic testing (PGT).
Children, indeed, are a blessing and gift from God. And all children, no matter how they were created, are made in God’s image as equals (Genesis 1:27). In an age of falling marriage and fertility rates, that truth deserves repeating.
However, not all methods of creating children are created equal.
If you’re dealing with infertility and the questions raised by IVF, you’re not alone. Would you let us come alongside you? We’d love to hear your story and talk with you in more detail.
Call our licensed or pastoral counselors for a free over-the-phone consultation at 1-855-771-HELP (4357). They can offer referrals to support groups, counselors, and qualified Christian therapists who can help you work through these issues.
Related articles and resources:
Counseling Consultation & Referrals
IVF: Moral and Ethical Considerations
Frozen Embryos: Ethical Issues, Cryopreservation Risks, and IVF
Analyzing President Trump’s Order Protecting and Expanding Access to IVF
Photo from Getty Images.
