2 Republican Lawmakers Seeking to Stop Expanded IVF Access for Military Members

WASHINGTON — Republicans in both chambers are calling on congressional leaders to remove expanded access to in vitro fertilization for military personnel and their families from a defense policy bill expected to pass before the end of the year.

Reps. Matt Rosendale, R-Monte Carlo, and Josh Brecheen, R-Okla., argue that provisions providing broad health coverage to military members for IVF treatment are too costly and would lead to “the destruction of innocent human lives.”

The lawmakers laid out their arguments in a letter Thursday to the leaders of the House and Senate Armed Services committees, just weeks after two Democratic lawmakers lobbied negotiators of the National Defense Authorization Act to include IVF provisions.

The House and Senate versions of the mandatory legislation would remove long-standing restrictions on Tricare’s coverage of IVF procedures by no longer requiring service members and dependents to attribute their infertility to a service-connected illness or injury.

Negotiators are expected to present a compromise bill next month.

Rosendale, a prominent critic of IVF on Capitol Hill, has sought to limit access to the procedure. In June, he tried unsuccessfully to put forward an amendment to eliminate funding for IVF treatment for military personnel.

The procedure, which involves fertilizing eggs outside the uterus and then implanting the resulting embryo, became a contentious political issue this year after the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos should be considered children.

Rosendale and Brechin said 4.1 million “fetal babies” were created through IVF in 2021, but only 97,128 of them resulted in births, citing statistics from the National Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“While we have great sympathy for couples who are having difficulty starting a family, IVF is ineffective, ruins innocent lives, and does nothing to treat the underlying cause of a couple’s infertility,” they wrote.

Lawmakers claim the IVF industry is “severely underregulated and operated without the necessary ethical principles.” The nonprofit American Society for Reproductive Medicine said IVF is “one of the most highly regulated procedures in all of American medicine.”

Rosendale and Brechin also argue that “dramatically” expanding access to IVF for military personnel would cost taxpayers an estimated $1 billion a year. Rosendale plans to leave Congress when his term ends in January.

“Congress must protect our nation’s most vulnerable and reject any provisions that destroy innocent lives and add to our nearly $36 trillion debt,” the lawmakers wrote in their letter.

Their stance against IVF runs counter to the positions of many members of Congress and military service organizations, who argue that service members deserve access to affordable fertility treatments because of the unique challenges of life in service.

Military personnel disproportionately suffer from infertility due to dangerous working conditions and long periods of time away from their partners, and often pay tens of thousands of dollars for IVF out of pocket due to a lack of insurance coverage.

Senate Democrats tried twice this year to pass legislation guaranteeing federal protection and insurance coverage for IVF, but Republicans blocked both attempts on the grounds that the procedure was not under threat in most states.