Republicans Are Selling "Ethical IVF." It's a Scam.

"While the government is shut down, Republicans are debating another budget issue: whether a military appropriations bill should include coverage for in vitro fertilization for military personnel. At the moment, military members have coverage only for service-related infertility. Democrats battled to ensure that the House version of the bill, which passed last month, would expand access to cover all causes of infertility."

"Republicans are mobilizing against the provision by arguing that IVF, a technology that accounted for nearly 3 percent of all births in the United States in 2023, not only harms rights-holding embryos but is also ineffective. They spotlight an alternative they call restorative reproductive medicine, a series of treatments, including fertility tracking, medication, and surgery, that they argue can treat the root causes of infertility."

Republicans are debating whether a military appropriations bill should include coverage for in vitro fertilization for military personnel while the government remains shut down. Military members currently receive coverage only for service-related infertility. Democrats secured an expansion in the House bill to cover all causes of infertility, but the IVF provision faces closed-door Senate negotiations and looks likely to die. Conservatives are advancing a strategy that portrays IVF as harmful to embryos and ineffective and promotes restorative reproductive medicine, a set of fertility treatments that omits IVF because some conservative Christians consider it unethical.

Read at Slate Magazine