California law mandating IVF coverage takes effect

On January 1, 2026, a new California law meant to broaden access to in vitro fertilization (IVF) and other fertility treatments went into effect. 

Key Takeaways:

• California's SB 729 took effect on January 1, mandating that large group health plans with at least 100 employees offer coverage for IVF and other fertility procedures.

• The law changes the definition of infertility to allow single individuals and LGBTQ couples to access IVF as well as egg and sperm "donors" and "gestational carriers."

• The majority of embryos created through IVF will not survive to birth and many will be intentionally destroyed. In fact, more human lives are now lost during the IVF process than abortion.

The Details:

Signed into law in 2024, SB 729 mandates that large group health plans with at least 100 employees offer coverage for infertility diagnosis and treatments, including IVF. In California, the cost of a single IVF cycle can exceed $20,000.

Under the new law, insurance companies are mandated to subsidize IVF as an essential health benefit for anyone who seeks it out. The legislation revises the state’s definition of infertility, ensuring that single individuals and same-sex couples are no longer allowed excluded from eligibility for fertility benefits and insurances companies must cover the use of a third party such as an egg or sperm "donor." The law excludes individuals covered by Medi-Cal, federally regulated health plans, or insurance provided through religious employers.

“I am so proud of this bill. I want this bill on my tombstone,” Sen. Caroline Menjivar, the law’s author, stated. “This impacts so many people from single people to heterosexual couples.”

Can You Be Pro-Life And Support IVF?

By necessitating financial support for IVF procedures through insurance coverage, California is normalizing a procedure that leads to the intended destruction of countless human embryos. Life begins at fertilization, and this new law gives a governmental stamp to what equates to a quiet but profound injustice. While infertility is an immensely personal and poignant struggle, using IVF to deal with it substitutes the natural conception process with laboratory control, transforming human embryos into commodities — tools  of medical manipulation instead of sacred gifts of life. Reproduction that becomes a technical process, including grading and labeling human embryos for quality, risks commodifying children and the very notion of parenthood itself. 

A 2025 report by the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology (SART) exposed that the total number of lives lost as a result of IVF is now surpassing the number of lives lost to induced, elective abortion each year. In 2023, there were 432,641 IVF cycles at 371 reporting clinics, but only 95,860 babies were born. That year, an estimated 1,946,884 embryos did not survive to be implanted, and another 1,759,664 were either frozen, destroyed, donated to research, or released for embryo adoption. In comparison, there were 1,037,000 abortions in the US in 2023.

Mandating insurance coverage of IVF compels participation in the morally objectionable process. Paying insurance premiums that bankroll embryo creation and destruction breaches conscience and religious freedom. Moreover, such a law eradicates crucial ethical distinctions by treating IVF as morally tantamount to a medical treatment that heals or preserves life.

In addition, couples undergoing IVF have to experience repeated cycles, emotional stress, and physical risks with unpredictable outcomes. Figures reveal that the majority of embryos created during IVF fail to make it to birth, leaving families grieving. IVF involves hormonal injections and invasive procedures that have physical and mental health consequences for women, causing them undue physical and emotional strain.

The Bottom Line:

Mandating insurance coverage for IVF will not eliminate these concerns; rather, the law could encourage more individuals to pursue IVF rather then the more ethical options of restorative reproductive medicine and adoption.