Former President Donald Trump vowed to either federally fund in-vitro fertilization or mandate that insurers cover the procedure, provoking unease among Christians and many conservatives.
Trump said in an interview last month that his administration would not only protect IVF but would also be “paying for that treatment" through the federal government or “mandating that the insurance company pay.” Trump also repeated during his first debate with Vice President Kamala Harris that he has “been a leader” on the issue of IVF, noting that he moved Republican lawmakers in Alabama to protect the procedure after members of the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos are indeed children who could be protected by wrongful death laws in the state.
The proposal from Trump on the federal backing of IVF, which usually involves discarding, freezing, and aborting fertilized embryos deemed unwanted or unviable by parents and doctors, comes after the Republican Party endorsed a new platform explicitly endorsing the procedure, as well as after every Republican member of the Senate vowed their continued support for IVF.
Yet the proposal has been met with hesitance from many conservatives who note the low survival rate for embryos conceived via IVF and the expenses associated with bankrolling IVF.
Christian voters have especially voiced disagreement with the proposal. Trump unveiled the IVF stance weeks after attendees of the Southern Baptist Convention, the largest association of Protestant churches in the nation and a bulwark of conservative evangelicalism, passed a resolution at their annual meeting expressing sympathy toward parents struggling with infertility but saying that “not all technological means of assisting human reproduction are equally God-honoring or morally justified.” Roman Catholic doctrine has also consistently opposed IVF.
Trump released a controversial statement earlier this year calling for states to make their own laws on abortion, adding he is “strongly in favor of exceptions” for rape and incest. He told voters that “you must follow your heart, or in many cases, your religion or your faith,” again emphasizing that “at the end of the day it’s all about the will of the people.”
Harris also supports protections for IVF but has not suggested a policy under which the federal government would pay for or mandate that insurers cover the procedure. Democratic members of the Senate have meanwhile introduced bills to protect IVF and decrease associated costs.
