President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Tuesday that aims to expand Americans’ access to in vitro fertilization (IVF) by directing the executive branch to look into ways to reduce financial barriers associated with the expensive fertility treatment.
The order directs the White House Domestic Policy Council to come up with policy recommendations to “protect IVF access and aggressively reduce out-of-pocket and health plan costs for such treatments,” according to a White House fact sheet.
“The recommendations will focus on how to ensure reliable access to IVF. Priority will also be placed on addressing any current policies, including those that require legislation, that exacerbate the cost of IVF treatments.”
The executive order comes after Democrats spent the 2024 campaign telling Americans that if elected, Trump and congressional Republicans would ban IVF access.
Last year, Democrats hammered the GOP over IVF following an Alabama Supreme Court ruling that declared embryos were children under state law, creating legal uncertainty for IVF clinics in the state. Alabama Governor Kay Ivey, a Republican, quickly signed legislation to protect IVF clinics from legal liability after three closed due to the ruling from Alabama’s high court.
Seeing the anti-IVF stance as an electoral loser, the National Republican Senatorial Campaign’s executive director sent a memo to Senate GOP candidates last year urging their them to “clearly and concisely reject efforts by the government to restrict IVF.”
“PROMISES MADE. PROMISES KEPT: President Trump just signed an Executive Order to Expand Access to IVF!” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said on X.
During the campaign, Trump promised to make IVF free by having either the government or private insurers pay for it, much to the chagrin of pro-lifers opposed to the procedure because of the deliberate destruction of embryos.
“I am announcing today that under the Trump administration, your government will pay for, or your insurance company will be mandated to pay for, all costs associated with IVF treatment,” Trump stated.
Without getting into details, Trump said that he backed IVF because he wants Americans to have more babies. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the American general fertility rate reached a historic low in 2023, dropping 3 percent from 2022.
The Department of Health and Human Services estimates that IVF treatments cost $15,000 to $20,000 per cycle and that 85,000 babies were born with IVF in 2021. In some cases, multiple cycles of IVF are needed for a woman to get pregnant.
Trump called himself the “father” of IVF at an all-female Fox News town hall catered towards female voters. He argued that Republicans were even more supportive of IVF than Democrats, countering Democratic attacks on the issue.
Trump paired his pro-IVF campaign stance with a moderate position on abortion as the GOP removed a national abortion ban from the party’s 2024 platform.