Research shows Catholic support for IVF declines once Church teaching is understood

Many Catholics who consider themselves pro-life still support in vitro fertilization (IVF) without realizing how dehumanizing and commodifying the practice is or why the Catholic Church is opposed to the practice. A recent survey published by Catholic News Agency (CNA) found that many Catholics who were in favor of IVF changed their stance once they understood Catholic teaching.

Key Takeaways:

• IVF is now widely used and seen as socially acceptable and praiseworthy, even among the pro-life movement.

• Much of the support for IVF relies upon a lack of knowledge about the details behind it, or explanations as to why it is dehumanizing.

• Catholic teaching states that each of the tiny embryos made in laboratories by IVF is a complete human being made in the image of God.

• IVF dehumanizes humans by regularizing the grading, intentional destruction, and perpetual freezing of human embryos. More lives are now lost to IVF than to abortion.

• IVF erodes one of the sacramental purposes of Catholic marriage — the total self-gift of spouses for the procreation of new life. 

• Support among Catholics for IVF declines when Church teaching is understood.

The Details:

Although the pro-life movement has gained considerable inroads in recent years, particularly among young adults in the post-Roe v. Wade era, a palpable contradiction still exists in our midst; many people who consider themselves as “pro-life” still implicitly support the practice of in vitro fertilization (IVF), including Catholics.

A recent survey published by Catholic News Agency (CNA) found that while most Catholic respondents initially were in favor of IVF when asked, they changed their minds once they understood Church teaching, which condemns the practice because it divorces the act of procreation from the marital embrace and gives rise to the destruction of numerous embryonic human lives. Notably, support for IVF dropped from 53.5% to 44.5% once respondents learned about Catholic teaching regarding IVF. 

In remarks cited by CNA,  Father Tadeusz Pacholczyk, a neuroscientist and senior ethicist at the National Catholic Bioethics Center (NCBC), stated that the American public’s widespread backing of IVF is “connected to broader misunderstandings about human sexuality, common among Catholics and non-Catholics alike.”

Father Pacholczyk explained: 

IVF is ‘babies without sex’ while contraception is ‘sex without babies,’ and Catholics have largely adopted prevailing societal attitudes in regards to both of these issues. Even a basic catechesis on these foundational issues has been lacking for an entire generation of Catholics.

Father Pacholczyk admitted that some prelates do not educate their parishioners about Church teachings pertaining to IVF so as not to offend anyone. Consequently, many Catholics end up “in an ideological vacuum," learning about IVF “from social media sites, the 'Today Show,' or People magazine” instead of the Church.

“Our task remains one of generously sharing and witnessing to the fullness of Christ’s teachings, which liberate the human heart and transform souls in joy,” he said.

Zoom In:

Apart from the lack of consistent teaching on IVF by prelates, the ignorance of many Catholics about what IVF really involves stems from years of media misrepresentation and cultural narratives that falsely depict IVF as a “compassionate solution” to infertility problems faced by couples. 

Yet the results of the aforementioned CNA poll showcase the reality that comprehending Church teaching on IVF can and does change minds. When Catholics learn about the theological and moral rationale behind the Church’s rejection of IVF, many of them would likewise oppose the practice.

Fundamentally, IVF is not a neutral medical procedure, as it entails the manufacturing of human life in petri dishes in a laboratory, as well as the selection of some embryos and the destruction or indefinite freezing of others. 

Can You Be Pro-Life And Support IVF?

Human embryos are complete humans

Catholic teaching states that each of the tiny embryos made in laboratories by IVF is a complete human being from the very moment of conception. To regard these tiny human beings as biological material to be frozen indefinitely, experimented on, or disposed of is to treat some human lives as less important than others. The number of lives lost to IVF now outnumbers those lost to abortion.

IVF considers some human beings to be unequal to others

From a pro-life perspective, the real risk of IVF is that it dehumanizes human beings by regularizing the destruction of human embryos in the name of addressing infertility. One human being is not a treatment for another human being's health concerns. IVF insidiously substitutes terms like “motherhood” and “fatherhood” with those of “treatment success rates," portraying babies as engineered medical achievements and consumer products instead of the fruit of marital love between a husband and a wife. 

IVF erodes the sacramental purpose of Catholic marriage

IVF also imperceptibly influences people to view infertility as an issue to be addressed technologically using laboratory methods, instead of divine providence. In short, IVF gravely erodes one of the sacramental purposes of Catholic marriage — that is, the total self-gift of spouses for the procreation of new life. 

The unfortunate truth is that even otherwise pro-life Catholics are carried away by the emotional appeal to address their own (or others’) infertility issues, instead of realizing that there can be no true compassion for life when the commodification of embryonic children happens (in the case of IVF).

The Big Picture:

Such moral incoherence is tragically pervasive among the political and cultural leadership in many countries in the West, including the United States. In a report by The New York Post, current Vice President (then-senator) J.D. Vance contended that while his Catholic faith influences his views on life and family, policy positions must mirror the viewpoints of a plural society. 

Although Vance’s stance may seem pragmatic, it is compartmentalized when viewed from a Catholic and pro-life perspective. Political leaders who claim to safeguard preborn lives must also protect the dignity of the frozen, discarded, and forgotten human lives created by IVF.

One of the most pressing tasks for pro-lifers, therefore, is to continue efforts to educate people in parishes, communities, and policy-making circles about the intrinsically anti-life nature of IVF. 

When Life Becomes a Product: IVF Children & Doctors Speak Out

Education is about shaping consciences in a wholesome manner, and not just conveying information. Pro-lifers must continue contesting the false narrative that intention can justify action. A wholesome desire to have children cannot excuse morally evil means to have them at the expense of the destruction of other embryos.

Opposing IVF is not about downplaying the lived suffering of couples experiencing infertility, but it is about safeguarding innocent embryonic human lives from being commodified and destroyed. 

The Catholic Church teaches coherently on the sanctity of all human lives, from conception to natural death. Many minds can be changed to oppose IVF when pro-life educators painstakingly explain the Catholic Church’s holistic teaching about life. When more and more people understand the true anti-life rationale of IVF and the Church’s teaching opposing it, they can learn about the true meaning and dignity of human life, that every life, regardless of how small, is a human being made in the image of God.

The Bottom Line:

Until the pro-life movement coherently unites to articulate the real truths about IVF and other forms of anti-life "fertility treatments," Catholics will continue to support anti-life procedures like IVF, influencing politicians who may campaign on these anti-life platforms merely for political expediency. The good news is that many minds are still receptive to wholesome education about human life, and for this very reason, there is still a lot of hope for the pro-life cause to shape one conscience at a time.