U.S. bishops urge ‘ethical alternatives’ to IVF following Trump executive order

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Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Feb 20, 2025 / 17:45 pm (CNA).

The chairman of the U.S. bishops’ pro-life committee and chairman of the committee for laity, marriage, family life, and youth criticized the new Trump administration order expanding in vitro fertilization (IVF) access.

Bishop Daniel Thomas of Toledo, Ohio, and Bishop Robert Barron of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, released a joint statement issued by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops opposing the president’s order and urging more humane options for infertility.

“As pastors,” the bishops said, “we see the suffering of so many couples experiencing infertility and know their deep desire to have children is both good and admirable; yet the administration’s push for IVF, which ends countless human lives and treats persons like property, cannot be the answer.” 

The executive order calls for White House advisers to submit policy recommendations to protect access to IVF and to reduce its out-of-pocket costs. 

“The IVF industry treats human beings like products and freezes or kills millions of children who are not selected for transfer to a womb or do not survive. Tuesday’s executive order promoting IVF is thus fatally flawed and stands in regrettable contrast to the promising pro-life actions of the administration last month,” they said.

The bishops clarified that “every human person is a precious gift with infinite dignity and worth” regardless of how he or she was conceived. 

“People born as a result of IVF have no less dignity than anyone else. It is our moral responsibility to uphold the dignity of their brothers and sisters who are never given the chance to be born.”

The bishops emphasized that the focus should be on solving infertility issues rather than promoting IVF.

“For the sake of couples trying to bring precious new life into the world,” they said, “we look forward to working with the administration to expand support for restorative reproductive medicine that can help ethically treat often-overlooked root causes of infertility.”

“However, we will strongly oppose any policy that expands destruction of human life or forces others to subsidize the cost,” the statement concluded.