White House says Trump is reviewing IVF policy recommendations promised in executive order

Winnipeg Free Press

20-05-2025

CHICAGO (AP) — Days after a bombing outside a Southern California fertility clinic, a White House official confirmed Tuesday that the Trump administration is reviewing a list of recommendations to expand access to in vitro fertilization.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order in February asking for ways to protect access and 'aggressively' lower 'out-of-pocket and health plan costs for IVF treatment.' White House spokesperson Kush Desai said the White House Domestic Policy Council wrote the list of recommendations over the last 90 days.
'This is a key priority for President Trump, and the Domestic Policy Council has completed its recommendations,' Desai said in a statement to The Associated Press.
Desai did not offer additional details about when the recommendations or a plan would be released or give details about the contents of the report.
The report was sent to the president days after an explosion damaged part of a fertility clinic in Palm Springs. The FBI believes a 25-year-old man was responsible for the blast, and authorities said his writings suggest he held anti-natalist views that include a belief that it's morally wrong for people to bring children into the world. Investigators have called the attack an act of terrorism.
The explosion brought renewed attention to the common fertility treatment IVF after it became a major political talking point during the 2024 U.S. presidential race.
Dr. Brian Levine, a New York City reproductive endocrinologist and IVF specialist, said he expects the White House report will contain recommendations for the states and also hopes it calls for expanding IVF coverage for members of the military and federal government employees.
'As a fertility doctor who's been practicing for the last 13 years, I don't think I've ever had this level of excitement for what the government is going to do,' he said. 'For the first time in my career, IVF is a priority at the highest levels of the government. It signals to patients that finally our advocacy is being heard. Both sides of the aisle are recognizing the problem we have in this country with access to IVF care.'
Trump called for universal coverage of IVF treatment while on the campaign trail, after his Supreme Court nominees helped to overturn Roe v. Wade, which had provided a constitutional right to abortion for half a century. That 2022 decision has led to a wave of restrictions in Republican-led states, including some that have threatened IVF access by trying to define life as beginning at conception.
During his campaign, Trump vowed to make the fertility treatment free for women but didn't give details about how he would fund his plan or precisely how it would work. Abortion rights groups countered that IVF would not be threatened if not for the overturning of Roe v. Wade, which Trump has proudly taken credit for.
IVF costs vary but range from about $12,000 to $25,000 per cycle, and people often need more than one cycle. Insurance coverage can be patchy. Some plans cover it, some partly cover it and some don't cover it at all.
Most Americans want access to IVF protected. Last year, a poll from The Associated Press and NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that about six out of 10 U.S. adults support that.
Trump's stance on IVF has put him at odds with the actions of much of his own party. While Trump has claimed the Republican Party has been a 'leader' on IVF, many Republicans have been left grappling with the tension between support for the procedure and for laws passed by their own party that grant legal personhood not only to fetuses but to any embryos that are destroyed in the IVF process.
GOP efforts to create a national narrative that it is receptive of IVF also have been undercut by state lawmakers, Republican-dominated courts and anti-abortion leaders within the party's ranks, as well as opposition to legislative attempts to protect IVF access.
Mini Timmaraju, CEO and president of the national abortion rights organization Reproductive Freedom for All, called Trump's comments about IVF 'lip service.'
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'All Trump has done is stack his administration with extremists, restrict access to reproductive care, and implement the dangerous Project 2025 plan, which would threaten access to IVF nationwide,' she said.
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Associated Press Science Writer Laura Ungar contributed to this report from Louisville, Kentucky.