What's behind the media's dehumanizing language regarding abortion and IVF?

The media has long used pro-abortion rhetoric and propaganda intended to dehumanize preborn children — and now it has begun to do the same for human beings created intentionally via IVF. The question is, why?

Key Takeaways:

• The media has a profound impact on culture, shaping the way Americans think about human embryos for decades through pro-abortion propaganda.

• Since the Alabama Supreme Court ruled in 2024 that frozen embryos could be considered children under the state's Wrongful Death Act, the media has launched an effort to dehumanize embryos created for IVF procedures.

• News outlets are altering the language surrounding embryos, claiming that human beings have been 'born from embryos' as if embryos are separate entities from the human beings themselves. In reality, embryos are human beings, not something different from human beings. A human "embryo" is a human in the embryonic stage of prenatal development.

• The goal of this subtle phrasing change is the same as that of pro-abortion rhetoric: to dehumanize embryos so adults become desensitized to their humanity and have no issue disposing of them if they deem it necessary.

The Backstory:

In 2024, the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that human embryos (not yet implanted) could be considered children under the state's Wrongful Death Act. The decision allowed parents to file lawsuits if their stored, frozen embryos were destroyed against their will or by fault of the fertility business.

The backlash was swift.

The media erroneously claimed the ruling would force the closure of IVF facilities; several of those businesses actually did pause IVF treatments throughout the state — not because of the ruling, but out of fear, because they knew that IVF is a process that usually involves destroying human embryos.

A few businesses, like the Fertility Institute of North Alabama and Huntsville Reproductive Medicine, understood that the ruling meant human embryos could still be created, but not destroyed, and they remained in operation.

But a stream of news stories claimed the ruling acknowledged human embryos as human persons — and was therefore a threat to both IVF and abortion. The fear of being hindered from destroying human embryos who did not meet the IVF industry standards spread.

Soon after, a 2025 Nevada bill attempted to enshrine IVF as a constitutional right in the state and redefine what a human being is, stating (emphasis added):

Any fertilized human egg or human embryo that exists in any form before implantation in the uterus of a human body is not an unborn child, a minor child, a person, a natural person or any other term that connotes a human being for any purpose under the law or regulations of this State or any political subdivision thereof.

The bill passed both of Nevada's houses but was ultimately vetoed by the governor.

However, the dehumanization — of even the embryos who were very much wanted by their parents at the time of their fertilization — had begun to grow roots. Quietly, the media began changing language surrounding embryos conceived through IVF.

The Details:

Over the last year, a trend has emerged among reporters at major media outlets like CNN, ABC News, MIT Technology Review, The Guardian, and the BBC.

These outlets have for years published news articles from a pro-abortion angle, but now, they have all begun discussing human beings conceived via IVF as if they came from embryos instead of what is scientific reality: those embryos are human beings in their embryonic stage of human development.

MIT Technology Review, which once called abortion pills via telemedicine a "breakthrough," wrote earlier this year that Thaddeus Daniel Pierce, who was born after remaining frozen for 30 years in his embryonic stage, was "born from an embryo..."

And like lemmings, other outlets followed, discussing Thaddeus in the same way — that he was born from an embryo — instead of the fact that he was that embryo. Such language further denies human embryos their humanity.

And that's the point.

PEOPLE is another media outlet that has changed the terms. In discussing the story of Noah Markham. PEOPLE wrote, "Noah Markham was born two years after Hurricane Katrina because his embryo was rescued from the catastrophic flooding (emphasis added)." No, Noah Markham was rescued as an embryo from Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

It was not Noah's embryo who was rescued, it was Noah, who was his parents' child, in the embryonic stage of development.

He was the embryo... just as he was also the fetus, and the newborn, and the toddler, and the adolescent, and so on. He was always Noah - the same human person through every stage.

An embryo is not a precursor to a person, nor does an embryo contain a person.

An embryo is a person.

The Mayo Clinic confirms that human beings remain in the embryonic stage well after implantation, through the eighth week after fertilization (10 weeks LMP). By eight weeks after fertilization, though still classified as an "embryo," that preborn human has developed eyes, fingers, toes, elbows, brain waves, a nose, and a heart (which has by that time already been beating and pumping blood for five weeks).

The Endowment for Human Development (EHD), a self-described “nonprofit organization dedicated to improving health science education and public health” that is “​​committed to neutrality regarding all controversial bioethical issues," produces an award-winning prenatal development DVD distributed by National Geographic. It uses the same milestones and timelines for prenatal development (from fertilization) as those featured in Live Action's “Baby Olivia,” seen below:

A Never Before Seen Look At Human Life In The Womb | Baby Olivia

Why It Matters:

There's a reason the terms are changing across media outlets.

Research has found that traditional media, including newspapers and magazines, have a "profound impact.. [in] successfully breaking cultural taboos." The media sets the tone for American culture, making the dehumanization of human embryos through the media an important step in ensuring that IVF — and its inherently eugenic processes — don't go away.

After the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that human embryos created through IVF could be considered children under the state's Wrongful Death Act, the threat to the lucrative fertility industry became very real.

IVF Isn't Pro-Life

While countless Americans believe that IVF is a 'pro-life' treatment because it creates new human lives, in reality, it destroys human embryos at a higher rate than abortion. According to researchers, at least 80% — about two million — of the embryos created for IVF procedures either die during the process, are frozen indefinitely, or are destroyed.

This is not pro-life. Here's why:

• IVF turns children into commodities. It treats them as products to be created and then selected or destroyed rather than as people with human rights.

• Embryos that don't meet IVF industry standards are destroyed.

• IVF "grades" humans to decide which are worthy of life. It uses labels and a grading system to determine which embryonic children should live and which should not. Fertility doctors weed out those with 'undesirable' characteristics or perceived flaws, allowing only those designated as the “highest quality" to be transferred to their mother's uterus.

Search and Destroy

The IVF process is eugenic and strips human embryos of their dignity.

The driving force behind the push to increase access to IVF (by denying that human embryos are human beings) is the same as the force behind legalized all-access abortion.

Many of the same elite groups and individuals who push for abortion access are also pushing for IVF access under the guise of 'freedom' — when in reality, they have eugenic aims.

Consider the following...

• Expected to Abort - Years of propaganda taught women that they should abort their children if they were single, below a certain income, below a certain educational level, too young, too old, had been sexually assaulted, or if the baby received a diagnosis. These messages — pumped into American minds through the media — led to the expectation that women who fit into those categories should abort.

• Expected to Destroy - The same is happening with IVF. Couples with a genetic predisposition or supposed 'flaw' are expected to use IVF to ensure that no children are born with health conditions; any embryo that fails to pass certain standards is automatically destroyed. There are even groups willing to fund the deaths of these embryonic children.

It gets darker. Nucleus Genomics, a DNA testing and analysis company, allows parents to upload the DNA files of up to 20 embryos from their IVF faciity to check for markers for over 900 'conditions' like diabetes, cancer, chronic conditions, mental health, and other health related conditions. It will also tell a parent each embryo's potential eye color, hair color, height, BMI... and likely IQ.

Don't Miss This:

While the elite are sold the IVF package to create 'designer' babies with (or without) specific characteristics, the underprivileged and marginalized are sold the idea that they must abort their babies.

It seems like this would be a wealthy eugenicist's dream come true. Clearly, controlling populations requires dehumanization across the board.

The Bottom Line:

Under this mindset, only certain people are worthy of life, the rest are destroyed, and a new generation considers it 'freedom' — and the propaganda media is complicit.