President Donald Trump has recently announced his support for government-funded in vitro fertilization (IVF) for all—a deeply problematic policy that is unacceptable to millions of pro-life Americans. Fertility struggles are heartbreaking and increasingly common. There are solutions, and public policy can help, but incentivized and unregulated IVF is not the answer.
It is a scientific fact that human life begins at the moment of fertilization. At that instant, a new and unique human being is formed, complete with their own DNA and the inherent dignity that all human beings deserve. Yet our public policies and culture continue to promote practices that disregard this truth. One of the most glaring examples is IVF—a process that creates human life, only to treat it as disposable.
IVF is not just a matter of helping couples have children; it is an industry built on the destruction and freezing of countless embryos—each one a human being. IVF doesn't just create the components or building blocks of human life; it creates human life itself, fully deserving of respect and legal protection. President Trump's recent proposal to have the federal government cover the costs of IVF for all Americans is both unethical and costly.
While President Trump's administration advanced the pro-life cause in many ways, this plan represents a significant violation of the truth that life begins at the moment of fertilization. Under this proposal, taxpayers would be forced to fund a practice that routinely creates and destroys human life, normalizing an industry that discards human embryos by the millions.
The sheer number of human lives lost through IVF is staggering. There are no strict regulations or widely accepted guidelines limiting how many embryos can be created during each IVF cycle. In the U.K., one report estimated that an average of 15 embryos are created for each woman who uses IVF, with only about 7 percent resulting in a live birth. The other 93 percent are either destroyed or frozen indefinitely with little chance of ever being implanted in their mother and born. In the United States, even a conservative estimate of 10 embryos created per cycle leads to shocking numbers. The 413,776 rounds of IVF reported in 2021 would have created approximately 4.1 million embryos, and yet, only 2.3 percent resulted in a live birth.
The human cost of IVF is devastating. Millions of embryos—tiny human beings—are discarded or left frozen with virtually no chance of ever being born. Each represents a life that began at fertilization, and yet they are treated as disposable commodities. Policies like Trump's IVF plan, which would incentivize and force taxpayers to fund this practice, would only mean more IVF—and millions more lives lost. IVF is also costly. The average IVF cycle in the United States costs between $15,000 and $30,000. It often is even more expensive than that.
It's not just Trump's plan that should concern us. Senator Tammy Duckworth's (D-Ill.) proposed Right to IVF Act would prevent states from protecting embryos created through IVF and force insurers to cover this unethical practice. By raising health care costs and incentivizing the destruction of human life, this legislation would dangerously cement IVF's place in our health care system.
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Senators Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) and Katie Britt's (R-Ala.) IVF bill is similarly unacceptable. Although it doesn't mandate government or private insurance funding of IVF, it does create a federal "right" to IVF that would strip states of their ability to protect embryos from being destroyed or frozen indefinitely. That is not pro-life and it is dangerous for the millions of human beings at risk from the IVF industry.
Rather than funding the destruction of life through IVF, we should be investing in restorative reproductive medicine, which seeks to treat the underlying causes of infertility rather than bypass them. NaProTechnology, NeoFertility, Symptothermal methods, and FEMM are leading restorative approaches that work with the body's natural fertility cycle to diagnose and treat infertility, offering a moral and effective alternative to IVF. Restorative medicine is far cheaper than IVF, and unlike IVF, it respects the dignity of human life while helping couples achieve pregnancy in an ethical way.
The pro-life movement must remain unwavering in its commitment to protect life from the moment of fertilization. Government policies that promote or fund IVF are not pro-life, and we must reject any attempt to normalize or expand this practice. Every embryo is a human being, deserving the same respect and protection as any child at any stage of development. Lawmakers must take a stand for life, promote alternatives like restorative medicine, and stop the widespread destruction of human lives through IVF. The Trump, Cruz, and Duckworth plans should all be opposed by those who respect the dignity of every human life.
Lila Rose is the founder & president of Live Action, the educational leader of the pro-life movement, dedicated to ending abortion and building a culture of life.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
