On Feb. 18, President Donald Trump signed an executive order expanding access to In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) for Americans, with a plan to “aggressively reduce out-of-pocket and health plan costs for such treatments.” The executive order follows years of increasing coverage by major insurance carriers for the procedure.
IVF is a form of assisted reproductive technology whereby a child is conceived outside of the womb. A woman’s eggs are retrieved and combined with a man’s sperm in a petri dish to create fertilized embryos. The embryos deemed most desirable are selected for implantation, and any additional viable embryos are discarded. IVF is done in cycles, and successful implantation often takes more than one.
Rates of IVF usage have increased in recent years as fertility rates continue to decline. The nationwide birth rate has fallen significantly from 14.3 births per 1,000 people in 2007 to 11.1– roughly 23% according to the CDC. Combine this statistic with rising rates of infertility, and it makes good political sense for old Uncle Sam to be concerned.
President Trump has long supported IVF and campaigned on it in the last election cycle, saying, “We want more babies, to put it very nicely. And for this same reason, we will also allow new parents to deduct major newborn expenses from their taxes, so that parents that have a beautiful baby will be able to, so we’re pro-family. But the IVF treatments are expensive. It’s very hard for many people to do it and to get it, but I’ve been in favor of IVF right from the beginning.”
Trump’s executive order follows years of increasing coverage for the procedure. IVF has become a benefits trend in the healthcare space, with large employers adding IVF among their covered benefits over the past few years. Preferred employer organizations (PEOs) have followed this trend, and that coverage is predicted to trickle down to smaller players, as employers seek to provide competitive and compelling coverage to their employees.
Devout practice of the Catholic faith and adherence to politically conservative values do not often come into conflict, but here old Uncle Sam’s concern with the declining birthrate fails to properly consider the moral cost of IVF. The disposal of viable embryos is morally unacceptable. Furthermore, IVF detaches procreation from the marital act, violating the sanctity of the institution of marriage and treats children as products that may be designed, altered or discarded at will.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church (No. 2377) outright states that IVF is “morally unacceptable” because it separates the marriage act from procreation and establishes “the domination of technology” over human life. In “Veritatis Splendor,” St. John Paul II writes that he Catholic Church is obliged to maintain vigilance of the “sign(s) of the times and interpret them in the light of the Gospels, so that [the Church] can offer in a manner appropriate to each generation replies to the continual human questionings of the meaning of life and the life to come.”
On the matter of IVF, for conservative Catholics, this means breaking from the current conservative position.
Emily Phillips is a junior philosophy major.