President Donald Trump's proposal to expand destructive in vitro fertilization (IVF) must be vigorously opposed by conservatives. IVF kills babies in the same way abortion does, and it is not pro-life.
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(LifeSiteNews) -- President Donald Trump is moving forward with his plan to expand access to in vitro fertilization (IVF), a procedure that involves destroying human embryonic children. Conservatives should stand against any attempts to expand IVF and must challenge the president to back away from his support.
On Tuesday, the president signed an executive order directing his staff to propose strategies for making IVF more affordable, as the procedure can cost tens of thousands of dollars. At this point, his executive order remains just a directive, but recommendations are due in 90 days. This means there is still time for pro-life leaders and other conservatives to help the president see the errors of his way.
Yet, some conservatives, including those with highly active X (formerly Twitter) accounts, were quick to cheer the president, taking a victory lap.
"PROMISES MADE. PROMISES KEPT: President Trump just signed an Executive Order to Expand Access to IVF!" Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, a Catholic, wrote on X.
"Protecting IVF access is essential to ensuring that every woman who wants to become a mother can do so. I can’t think of anything more conservative than this," Nicole Kiprilov with the Independent Women's Forum wrote on X. "Being a mother is the most important purpose any woman will ever have.""Wait a sec. Didn’t the democrats spend billions saying Trump and Congressional Republicans would take away access to IVF?" conservative political consultant Mike Thom wrote.
Raj Aryal, an aide to Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, celebrated the announcement. Aryal also pointed out that Kamala Harris falsely claimed Trump would ban IVF.
READ: Bishop Strickland, pro-life leaders criticize Trump’s ‘tragic’ IVF executive order
But IVF is not pro-life and it is not pro-family. Expanding access to IVF could destroy 2.4 million human embryonic children every year, more than twice the number of annual abortions.
There are several reasons conservatives should oppose IVF.
First, it is similar to abortion. People using the procedure intentionally create more embryos than they will reasonably use. Some embryos, because of perceived defects, are directly killed, in the same way Planned Parenthood kills preborn children.
For every one baby conceived in IVF, around six human embryonic children are essentially aborted. So there are plenty of things "more conservative" than IVF.
When we remember that the basics of pro-life apologetics revolve around "size," "level of development," "environment," and "degree of dependency," known as the "SLED test," it will be easy to see why IVF and abortion are one in the same.
An embryo created in a petri dish is small – just like a preborn baby in his mother's womb. But the size of a human being cannot determine its moral worth – otherwise we could kill two-year-olds just because they are smaller than adults.
An embryo is not as developed as a baby at 20 weeks' gestation. I think most conservatives, and even some liberals, would agree that a baby in the second trimester is worthy of protection from abortion. But the "level of development" again cannot justify abortion of either a non-implanted or implanted embryo. After all, a baby at 5 days old is less developed than a 10-year-old child, but no one would want to draw the line saying the baby can be killed because he cannot talk or walk.
The "environment," or location, of the embryo cannot be a determinant of moral worth either. My guess is most conservatives find the idea of a "magic birth canal" quite silly. After all, what changes in terms of moral worth when a baby enters the outside world for the first time versus a minute prior? Similarly, an embryo in a freezer is a human being with its own unique DNA. We know it is a human being because when we implant it in a woman, it will either die or gestate until it is born. It does not come out as a panda, a banana tree, or a toy firetruck.
That an embryo in a freezer is dependent on external sources for survival cannot justify treating it differently than a baby in or out of the womb, either. After all, a person without functioning lungs needs external sources to survive, yet we do not say someone on a ventilator has less moral worth than someone who can breathe on their own. A baby in the womb needs its mother's nutrients to survive just the same as a frozen embryo needs the proper environment to live.
READ: What the Immaculate Conception can teach us about IVF
While some conservatives are apparently ignoring that an embryo is a human being, our opponents are not. For example, in the wake of last year's Alabama Supreme Court ruling, which affirmed humans have rights no matter their size or location, pro-abortion groups warned about "fetal personhood" laws. Recognizing human life begins at conception in law, the pro-abortion groups said, could lead to eliminating IVF. Which is plausible, because IVF involves abortion.
Even those unconvinced by the pro-life arguments should worry about a society that subsidizes the creation of children outside of marriage. IVF allows single women and lesbian "couples" to create children who will likely never know their dad. If conservatives are going to be serious about restoring the culture, then they cannot support a procedure that helps create fatherless children.
There is still hope. As Eric Sammons, editor-in-chief of Crisis, points out, Trump could make the report go away. He wrote that "we need to keep the pressure on the Trump Administration to memory-hole this EO and just ignore the eventual report."
Pro-life and Catholic leaders could work to influence the president to simply bury any recommendations or lobby Vince Haley, the aide tasked with writing the report, to find a way to make it unpalatable. It will take courageous voices and Catholics who are willing to risk the president's ire to fight for human life. Vice President JD Vance and Karoline Leavitt should remember their own salvation ahead of their political ambitions.
Some conservatives with ties to the Trump administration are willing to put themselves out there to defend the truth, with Rachel Campos-Duffy urging the Department of Health and Human Services to address the root causes of infertility.
"We’re always treating symptoms rather than the underlying root causes in this country," the Catholic mom of nine and wife of Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy wrote on X. She has courage to say the right thing - other conservatives should find it in themselves to follow her lead.
Pray for an end to IVF and the protection of human embryos: Join our prayer pledge
