Pray for an end to IVF and the protection of human embryos: Join our prayer pledge

WASHINGTON, D.C. (LifeSiteNews) — After blocking U.S. Senate Democrats from advancing a bill to codify federal protections for embryo-destroying in vitro fertilization (IVF), Republican Senators introduced an equally horrendous bill of their own to protect the inhuman procedure across the United States.

All 49 GOP senators voted for the bill sponsored by Republican Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Katie Britt of Alabama.

In a cynical move to claim credit for attempting to create a national right to IVF, Republicans presented their measure as “pro-life” and “pro-family.”

“We strongly support continued nationwide access to IVF, which has allowed millions of aspiring parents to start and grow their families,” Senate Republicans wrote in a statement.

“IVF is pro-life,” insisted Nikki Haley, formerly in the running for the GOP presidential bid and previously the governor of South Carolina, in response to the move.

“My children are blessings because of fertility procedures. Many parents would love to have children. We should not be banning these procedures. We should be encouraging them,” Haley added.

IVF is pro life. My children are blessings because of fertility procedures. Many parents would love to have children. We should not be banning these procedures we should be encouraging them.

— Nikki Haley (@NikkiHaley) June 13, 2024

Democrats and Republicans are equally wrong

The tension between Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill regarding IVF reveals how morally fraught the issue is, and how it has become a political football during the 2024 presidential election year, when both parties hope to come out of November controlling the the White House, Senate, and House of Representatives.

Democrats and Republicans are equally wrong to condone a procedure that funnels billions of dollars into the burgeoning artificial reproduction industry.

Sadly, there is no one within the once-venerable upper house chamber willing to stand up and protect the life of the unborn.

Why the IVF industry must be shut down, outlawed

When couples or individuals choose to create children using IVF, many more eggs are fertilized than necessary as an insurance policy in case first attempts at successful pregnancies fail. Stored embryos deemed to be no longer necessary for the parents’ pursuit of a family – often numbering a dozen or more, and sometimes as many as 30 – are discarded as medical waste, donated for scientific research, or condemned to be perpetually frozen in cryogenic lab facilities.

It’s an inconvenient truth for the IVF industry and for politicians: 93% of all embryos —unborn children— created for IVF meet a terrible fate.

The IVF industry cannot survive without the killing of embryos. More to the point: The IVF industry cannot survive without the killing of 93 percent of children the process creates.

Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America and other pro-life groups have denounced removing protections for babies conceived through IVF:

It is an indisputable scientific fact that human life begins at the moment of fertilization. The moment of fertilization, when an individual human zygote is formed, marks the starting point of each human being’s life. The embryonic period is simply one stage of development in the life of a human being – just like the fetal, childhood, adolescent, and adult stages of life.

A child in the embryonic stage of development is of incalculable value to his or her family, and though young, is not of any less worth to their parents than a child at three months in the womb, nine months in the womb, or after the very moment of birth. Both science and logic have made it clear that embryos must be accorded the same human rights and level of dignity that all other human beings — at every developmental stage of life — are granted.

IVF is opposed by the Catholic Church and many pro-lifers precisely because it involves the deliberate destruction of innocent human life.

Further, IVF separates sex from procreation and can lead to eugenics, as some couples or single parents who buy sperm or eggs choose to abort embryos based on the possibility of future physical or mental disabilities.

Both bills have been denounced by pro-life commentators

The Democrats’ bill goes “well beyond IVF,” noted Kristen Waggoner, president, CEO, and general counsel at Alliance Defending Freedom. “It prohibits any limit on fertility treatments, jeopardizing commonsense protections for embryonic life, maternal health, and informed consent. States may be prohibited from regulating cloning and genetic editing, or any other reproductive technology.”

“The bill also refers to embryos as mere ‘reproductive genetic material,’ allowing for their indiscriminate destruction,” Waggoner said.

“We must protect unborn life. And families struggling to conceive are worthy of support. But at the end of the day, the ‘Right to IVF Act’ serves only to enrich an unregulated and profit-driven industry while endangering life at its earliest stages,” she added.

The Heritage Foundation’s Emma Waters, senior research associate in the Richard and Helen DeVos Center for Life, Religion, and Family, explained the problematic nature of the Republican-sponsored IVF Protection Act last month.

“In introducing this bill, Senator Cruz and Senator Britt are looking for ways to inoculate themselves against potential political attacks,” Waters wrote. “Rather than focusing on protections for parents undergoing infertility treatments, the IVF Protection Act boosts the global, multibillion-dollar fertility industry.”

“Republicans can and should be a pro-parent party that promotes life-affirming infertility care, rather than fall into thoughtless enthusiasm for Big Fertility,” she said.

“Cruz and Britt’s political folly lies in their uncritical focus on supporting the fertility industry, rather than the best interests of parents, women, and children,” Waters said. “It’s time for Republicans to recognize that the ground is shifting beneath their feet and regulate IVF according to the highest standard of medical and ethical care that prioritizes parents, not the profits of the self-regulated fertility industry.”

Protecting IVF is rife within the GOP

After the Alabama Supreme Court affirmed earlier this year that embryos are children – bringing an abrupt end to IVF procedures in the state – presumed GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump roundly rejected the court’s finding, saying, “I strongly support the availability of IVF for couples who are trying to have a precious baby.”

Other self-identifying “MAGA” and “America First” Republicans joined Trump in criticizing the court and continue to pledge protections for the procedure that proves deadly to so many unborn lives.

Pray for an end to IVF and the protection of human embryos: Join our prayer pledge