It’s easy to forget two years later, but during the 2024 presidential campaign, Donald Trump claimed he would make in vitro fertilization free to Americans during his second term. With just weeks until Election Day, the Republican declared that he considered himself “the father of IVF,” which was every bit as ridiculous as it sounded.
Like too many of the president’s campaign promises, he abandoned his ostensible target after returning to the White House — Trump signed an executive order last year to expand access to IVF, but it’s still far from free — and his congressional allies continue to move in regressive directions on the issue. The New York Times reported:
Republicans in Congress have quietly blocked a proposal to expand military health coverage of in vitro fertilization treatment for service members and their families, heeding the calls of anti-abortion groups to limit access to a fertility option that President Trump vowed to make more widely available.
The move is a shift from previous years, when there was enough bipartisan support for the idea of broadening the availability of I.V.F. for members of the military that it was included in the annual defense bill that passed both the House and Senate.
In recent months, the Times’ report added, Senate Republicans “banded together to bar the measure from being added to the defense bill in the first place,” ensuring that the IVF treatments Trump had vowed to make free for everyone would not be included in the coverage plan for the troops and their families.
The broader political dynamic is obvious: On the campaign trail, GOP officials and candidates, mindful of the gender gap, talk about their support for IVF treatments. But on Capitol Hill, those same Republicans remain beholden to far-right activists who oppose the policy as part of their culture war.
“Republicans are pushing for the largest defense bill in our nation’s history to keep prosecuting an illegal war with no end in sight, yet they can’t carve out a tiny fraction to ensure our nation’s heroes have access to I.V.F. to build their families,” Democratic Sen. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois told the Times, noting that service members have double the rate of infertility as the general population.
She added, “It’s shameful that Republicans keep enabling Trump to break his promise to cover IVF for our service members.”
What’s more, similar problems are unfolding for the party away from the nation’s capital. In mid-June, for example, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, his party’s U.S. Senate nominee, told HuffPost, “I am a strong supporter of IVF and pro-family policies that help Americans experience the wonders of parenthood.”
A week later, Paxton backed off, telling The Washington Examiner that he supports “restrictions” on IVF and adding that policymakers still “need to just examine the issue.” His reversal roughly coincided with a Republican push to ban IVF in Texas.
With three months remaining before the midterm elections, this hasn’t been a front-burner issue, though efforts to generate renewed attention on IVF are underway. As MS NOW reported two weeks ago, “With their sights set on winning control of Congress in November, Senate Democrats are reviving a legislative effort to dramatically expand access to in vitro fertilization.” Watch this space.
This post updates our related earlier coverage.
The post Republicans reject key IVF proposal, leaving Trump’s campaign promise in tatters appeared first on MS NOW.
