What Is Happening with IVF?

In vitro fertilization (IVF) is still in the news – or is it again? Republicans struggle with the messaging and the legislating of IVF because there is division in the ranks about the expendability of human embryos. There are significant questions on both moral and ethical issues about how embryos are treated.

Mary Margaret Olohan reported in an article published at The Daily Signal that Representative Josh Brecheen (R-Oklahoma) sent a letter on Tuesday to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention asking for “transparency on in vitro fertilization practices in the United States.” In his letter, Brecheen points out that clinics in Western countries are prohibited from “practicing eugenics or carelessly destroying human life.” According to Olohan, Brecheen argued that “the U.S. does not even require IVF clinics to be transparent about their participation in these types of practices.” She reported that Brecheen wrote, “This carelessness has earned the U.S. the title of the ‘Wild West’ of assisted reproductive technology.”

After the Alabama Supreme Court protected embryonic human life, Republicans in Congress are often put on the spot “to state their position on IVF.” Olohan gave further explanation as to what was happening.

Despite media suggesting the contrary, the state Supreme Court did not ban IVF but merely ruled in favor of protecting embryonic human life. Justice Jay Mitchell wrote in his opinion that “unborn children are ‘children’” under the state’s Wrongful Death of a Minor Act.

Experts like The Heritage Foundation’s Emma Waters have argued that the ruling brought “much-needed regulation” to the fertility industry in the United States….

Waters pointed out that only a handful of state laws actually address the “moral and ethical questions raised by the artificial creation of human life.”

“This decision ensures that the well-being of children, not financial gain, is the top priority when it comes to IVF and embryonic cryopreservation,” Waters argued.

Olohan continued with a discussion about how IVF continues to be “a complicated thorn in the side of Republicans” who have not yet decided on a successful message about abortion for the 2024 election cycle. We can be sure that Democrats will use both IVF and abortion as issues with which to hammer Republicans.

Republican candidates must have a unified and responsible position on both procedures. Since unborn embryos have been judged as “children,” they have the God-given rights of life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. This means that government has the responsibility to protect them. The real question is how to do it responsibly and in a way that is acceptable to most Americans as well as to God.