US Catholic bishops 'strongly reject' Trump's IVF initiatives

Catholic bishops in the U.S. have said they "strongly reject" the Trump administration's recent promotion of in vitro fertilization (IVF), which they say treats human beings "like property."

Key Takeaways:

• Last week, the Trump administration announced initiatives to help U.S. couples pay for IVF and other fertility methods.

• In response, U.S. bishops said they "reject the promotion of procedures... that... destroy precious human beings..."

• As the number of IVF cycles continues to rise in the U.S., so does the number of human embryos who are destroyed or frozen indefinitely.

The Details:

Last week, President Trump announced that his administration will make IVF more affordable with employer insurance benefit coverage and a deal to lower the cost of fertility drugs. Administration officials indicated that fertility benefits will become "opt-in" on an insurance plan similar to choosing dental or vision benefits.

Trump also said there would be support for restorative reproductive medicine that treats the root cause of infertility.

Can You Be Pro-Life And Support IVF?

Bishop Robert E. Barron, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' (USCCB) Committee on Laity, Marriage, Family Life and Youth; Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades, chairman of the Committee for Religious Liberty; and Bishop Daniel E. Thomas, chairman of the Committee on Pro-Life Activities, said in a statement:

Though we are grateful that aspects of the Administration's policies announced Thursday intend to include comprehensive and holistic restorative reproductive medicine, which can help ethically to address infertility and its underlying causes, we strongly reject the promotion of procedures like IVF that instead freeze or destroy precious human beings and treat them like property.

Every human life, born and preborn, is sacred and loved by God. Without diminishing the dignity of people born through IVF, we must recognize that children have a right to be born of a natural and exclusive act of married love, rather than a business's technological intervention. And harmful government action to expand access to IVF must not also push people of faith to be complicit in its evils.

Why It Matters:

More children die from IVF than are born from it, as each cycle typically includes the creation of multiple embryos who will be graded and labeled based on "quality." It's a eugenic process that leads to the destruction of millions of human lives, as only those who make the cut are allowed to be given a chance at life.

In addition, as Live Action News previously reported, while IVF has long been the mainstream and accepted way to approach infertility, it is seen by many doctors as a band-aid approach to infertility.

Restorative Reproductive Medicine (RRM), however, attempts to address the root causes of infertility without intentionally creating and destroying human lives. It also boasts a higher success rate than IVF.

Go Deeper:

Read the links below for more information about the ways IVF is not pro-life:

Eugenics and IVF: Couples can now ‘choose’ children based on a genetic score

Research shows that IVF destroys embryos at a higher rate than abortion

GUEST OPINION: Children conceived by IVF are precious. But IVF is still unethical.