Trump signs executive order on expanding access to IVF
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President Trump signed an executive order Tuesday calling for expanded access to in vitro fertilization.
Why it matters: Trump ordered policy recommendations to reduce the costs for accessing the procedure, which can range from $12,000 to $25,000 per cycle.
- The move taps into Republicans' support for building families but could rekindle rifts within the GOP on reproductive health.
- "Our nation's public policy must make it easier for loving and longing mothers and fathers to have children," the White House said in a fact sheet.
The big picture: More than 85,000 infants were born as a result of IVF in 2021, per the Department of Health and Human Services.
- The procedure is often not fully covered by insurance, with roughly a quarter of employers reporting coverage of IVF for their workers, according to the White House.
Catch up quick: As a candidate, Trump promised to have the government or insurance companies cover the cost of IVF for "all Americans that need it," without specifying how the proposal would work.
- He later asserted during a Fox News town hall that he was "the father of IVF," in response to a question about whether the overturning of Roe v. Wade would limit access to fertility treatments.
Context: The decades-old treatment was subsumed into the reproductive rights debate almost exactly a year ago, after Alabama's Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos created through IVF were children under state law. That created a flurry of legal questions and temporarily halted procedures until Gov. Kay Ivey signed a law preserving the availability of IVF in the state.
- The issue has divided Republicans, some of whom have struggled to square their declared belief that life begins at conception with the fact that surplus embryos created through IVF are often discarded.
- Senate Republicans twice last year blocked efforts to enshrine federal protections for IVF, dismissing the proposal as a "show vote" ahead of the elections.
