‘Can’t get more pro-life than this’: Trump brushes off IVF concerns of some conservatives as he rolls out drug price drop
In vitro fertilization has emerged as a wedge issue within the Trump coalition, as some praise the treatment for supporting the president’s goal of increasing new births, while others criticize IVF on pro-life grounds
President Donald Trump on Thursday waived away pro-life concerns within his coalition over the White House’s recently announced initiative to increase access to vitro fertility treatments, the latest reminder of IVF’s divisive status within the Republican Party.
When asked about the anti-abortion movement’s concerns over his work supporting IVF, the president said the White House plan to lower costs on a common IVF drug and encourage workplaces to insure such treatments was in fact a pro-life policy.
“I think this is very pro-life,” Trump said. “You can’t get more pro-life than this.”
As part of the plan, drugmaker EMD Serono will offer reduced prices on its popular Gonal-f drug, which the president said will be accessible through the administration’s forthcoming TrumpRx website.
The initiative will also see federal agencies create new rules reducing red tape and allowing workplace insurance to offer fertility treatments as a standalone type of coverage, akin to dental or vision insurance.
Some within the broader pro-life movement criticized the president’s plan.
“I’m thankful there’s no new healthcare mandate forcing coverage for the destructive IVF industry, but IVF, as it’s practiced, still destroys countless humans in the embryonic stage,” Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life, wrote on X. “It’s time to find real solutions that help families grow and flourish without killing Life in the process.”
“IVF kills more babies than abortion—millions of embryos are frozen, discarded, or destroyed,” Lila Rose, founder of the anti-abortion group Live Action, wrote on X. “Only 7% of embryos created survive to birth. Not a solution to fertility struggles.”
On the campaign trail, Trump was an outspoken backer of IVF, calling himself the “father” of the procedure and promising a policy that would mandate insurance companies or the government pay for the medical procedure.
In office, his actions have been more modest, and the Trump administration eliminated a team of CDC experts responsible for tracking IVF outcomes across the country.
Nonetheless, the president and his claims the GOP would become the “party of IVF” have fractured parts of the Republican coalition.
“Though we share his desire for Americans to have more babies, Trump’s plan to fund in vitro fertilization for all American women is in direct contradiction with that hope,” Pro-Life Action League President Ann Scheidler told Politico in September.
Similar divisions have played out at the state level, where Republicans have sparred over IVF, in the wake of appointed conservatives on the Supreme Court helping overturn the constitutional right to an abortion in 2022.
Last year, the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that embryos are people, citing the 2022 decision, though state lawmakers swiftly passed a bill restoring IVF access.
Similar intraparty disputes have played out in states including Tennessee and Georgia.
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