Trump Could Issue New IVF Policies in the Coming Days
President Donald Trump signed an executive order in February requiring the leader of the Domestic Policy Council to create a “list of policy recommendations on protecting IVF access and aggressively reducing out-of-pocket and health plan costs for IVF treatment” within 90 days.
The deadline for Vince Haley, Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy, to submit that list is rapidly approaching, meaning the administration could soon take unprecedented steps to promote IVF, also known as in-vitro fertilization, despite IVF practices that violate biblical ethics.
As we will discuss more deeply in a future article, IVF as commonly practiced presents many dangers to preborn life and very often promotes the intentional destruction of preborn children while in their earliest stages of development. Christians who love their preborn neighbors and oppose their destruction by means of abortion should also be gravely concerned about efforts to expand and subsidize IVF.
The Executive Order
After vowing on the campaign trail that the federal government would either “be paying for” access to IVF or “mandating that the insurance company pay,” Trump signed an executive order weeks after his inauguration with a directive to study and present recommendations regarding “expanding access” to IVF practices on a national level.
One fact sheet issued by the White House about the order noted that a typical cycle of IVF can “range from $12,000 to $25,000,” with multiple cycles sometimes required to become pregnant. The release concluded that “avenues to more affordable IVF treatments are needed” and lamented that “IVF is often not fully covered by health insurance” in the United States.
In the opinion of the administration, IVF is one way to recognize “the importance of family formation” and address fertility rates that are reaching “another historic low.”
The Biblical Concerns
While our nation indeed has declining birth rates which present serious problems on many fronts, typical IVF practices involve the selective aborting, discarding, and indefinite freezing of preborn babies made in the image of God. Instead of promoting these practices, our laws should ban the destruction of embryos, and our government should by no means fund such practices with our tax dollars or create a more favorable environment for them to continue.
Trump has called religious exemptions for businesses unwilling to support IVF a “pretty good idea” but has not offered details about the types of IVF practices a federal effort would endorse.
The Likely Policies
One potential method for expanding IVF access involves making the practice an essential benefit covered by private health insurance, according to Sean Tipton, the chief advocacy and policy officer of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine. Similar moves could be made with Medicaid, the Department of Veterans Affairs, the TriCare plans received by uniformed military members, and the Federal Employee Health Benefits used by government workers.
While the joint state and federal nature of Medicaid could present complications, there are already at least 10 states with laws requiring IVF and fertility coverage from insurers, showing a willingness from state legislatures to expand IVF. Those states include Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, and Utah.
Other states, including some of the most conservative states in the nation, have enshrined legal protections for IVF. Tennessee has a statute protecting IVF and contraception as of last month, while Alabama has a law shielding IVF recipients and providers from liability as of last year.
Congress also appears broadly willing to expand IVF should Trump call for legislation to that effect, with every single Republican member of the Senate signing a letter last year saying that they “support continued nationwide access to IVF” in order to help parents “grow their families.”
The Christian Response
Most Republicans and Democrats at the state and federal level are broadly in favor of IVF and have taken action to protect all forms of the practice. Any policy proposals which Trump receives in the coming days to expand protection or fund access for IVF could face minimal resistance.
Christians must continue to advance legislation to abolish abortion and establish equal protection of the laws for all preborn babies, ensuring that those who willfully discard or harm these image-bearers of God, including through IVF, are held accountable under the law.
Rather than enshrining legal protections for IVF into state and federal statute, lawmakers should, among other actions, ensure the same homicide laws that protect born people are protecting all preborn people as well, preventing their destruction through IVF.