President Donald Trump signed an executive order titled Expanding Access to In Vitro Fertilization on Tuesday. In it, the president declares, “It is the policy of my Administration to ensure reliable access to IVF treatment, including by easing unnecessary statutory or regulatory burdens to make IVF treatment drastically more affordable.” This is not a pro-life position, and pro-lifers must be clear about that.
Couples struggling with fertility use IVF to expand their families. In the process, multiple embryos are created in a lab in order to further the chance of a successful pregnancy. Sadly, the embryos that are not used in the process are either frozen or discarded. A consistent life ethic views life as beginning at conception, which is supported by science. Embryos are unique human beings at the start of development. Viewing them as products to use or dispose of is no less horrific than the killing of unwanted unborn life that is already in a womb in an abortion clinic.
In October, Trump called himself “the father of IVF” during a campaign town hall. He admitted not knowing much about IVF until Sen. Katie Britt (R-AL) told him. From that point on, Trump has seemingly been a huge advocate of fertility treatment. After the president signed the executive order, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt posted on X, “PROMISES MADE. PROMISES KEPT.” The administration believes the executive order is a win for families.
However, like abortion, expanding IVF only means more unwanted, “extra” human lives will be tossed out as trash. In the case of IVF, some are frozen indefinitely. Expanding access to IVF is deemed pro-family. In reality, it means more unborn lives will be treated as a means to an end. That is the definition of anti-life.
For their part, national pro-life leaders such as Lila Rose of Live Action and Kristan Hawkins of Students for Life of America have come out in strong opposition to the executive order. Ryan Anderson, president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, did as well, saying, “For one birth, doctors might create ten to twenty embryos, transfer several of the ‘most promising,’ freeze the rest, and if more than one implants, abort the others. So the typical IVF cycle results in multiple dead and frozen embryos.”
Some national pro-life groups, however, were conspicuously silent or evasive. This includes the National Right to Life, the country’s oldest and largest pro-life organization, which has not commented at the time of this writing. SBA Pro-Life America’s weak statement left much to be desired. Two days after the IVF announcement, the March for Life finally released a statement “encouraging” Trump to remember that “life has value from the moment of conception.”
It’s not enough just to be anti-abortion. These organizations must be pro-life. Unfortunately, loyalty to the current president seems to far outweigh the desire for moral consistency and protection of the innocent. It is shamefully transparent and purely political.
TRUMP IVF ORDER DRAWS CRITICISM FROM ANTI-ABORTION ACTIVISTS
The argument used in support of IVF by the Trump administration and its supporters is that it helps to create families. Any criticism of IVF is treated as anti-family during a time with below-replacement-level fertility rates. However, those who value life inside the womb of a teenager worried about motherhood and seeking an abortion should seamlessly apply the same concern to lab-created embryos used and stored in IVF facilities. Families are wonderful and should be encouraged. Destroying human life along the way is inexcusable and must be condemned.
In a Truth Social post in August, Trump said, “My Administration will be great for women and their reproductive rights.” At the time, pro-lifers wondered what that meant in a second Trump term. Now, it is clear. With his executive order, Trump is not concerned with advancing a truly pro-life agenda. Instead of encouraging families by promoting adoption or restorative reproductive medicine, the administration has taken this route. IVF is just as ethically concerning as abortion because it destroys multiple human lives. It is wholly dishonest and anti-life to sell it as a reproductive good.
Kimberly Ross (@SouthernKeeks) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog and a contributing freelance columnist at the Freemen News-Letter.
This article was originally published at www.washingtonexaminer.com
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