Two House Republicans are urging congressional leaders to omit expanded access to in vitro fertilization for troops and their families from a defense policy bill set to pass before the end of year. (Stars and Stripes)
WASHINGTON — Two House Republicans are urging congressional leaders to omit expanded access to in vitro fertilization for troops and their families from a defense policy bill set to pass before the end of year.
Reps. Matt Rosendale, R-Mont., and Josh Brecheen, R-Okla., argue provisions providing extensive military health care coverage of IVF treatments are too costly and would lead to the “destruction of innocent human life.”
The lawmakers made their case in a Thursday letter 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 the IVF provisions.
The House and Senate versions of the must-pass legislation remove longstanding restrictions on Tricare coverage of IVF treatments, no longer requiring that service members and dependents link their infertility to a service-related illness or injury.
Reps. Josh Brecheen, R-Okla., left, and Matt Rosendale, R-Mont., argue provisions providing extensive military health care coverage of IVF treatments are too costly and would lead to the “destruction of innocent human life.” (House.gov)
Negotiators are expected to unveil a compromise bill next month.
Rosendale, a prominent IVF critic on Capitol Hill, has sought to curb access to the procedure. In June, he unsuccessfully attempted to put forward an amendment defunding IVF treatment for troops.
The procedure, which involves fertilizing eggs outside the womb and then implanting a resulting embryo, became a contentious political issue this year after Alabama’s Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos should be considered children.
Rosendale and Brecheen said 4.1 million “embryonic children” were created through IVF in 2021 but only 97,128 of them resulted in a birth, 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, leads to the destruction of innocent human life, and does nothing to treat the root cause of a couple’s infertility,” they wrote.
The lawmakers contend the IVF industry is “heavily underregulated and is done without the needed ethical guidelines in place.” The nonprofit American Society for Reproductive Medicine has said IVF is “one of the most heavily regulated procedures in all American medicine.”
Rosendale and Brecheen also argue the “dramatic” expansion of access to IVF for service members would cost taxpayers about $1 billion per year. Rosendale is set to leave Congress after his term ends in January.
“Congress must protect the most vulnerable in our country and reject any provision that leads to the destruction of innocent human life and expands our nearly $36 trillion debt,” the lawmakers wrote in their letter.
Their anti-IVF stance is at odds with the positions of many members of Congress and military service organizations that contend service members deserve access to affordable fertility treatments due to the unique challenges of life in service.
Troops are disproportionately affected by infertility as a result of hazardous working conditions and significant time away from their partners and often pay tens of thousands of dollars in out-of-pocket costs for IVF due to lack of insurance coverage.
Democrats in the Senate twice attempted to pass legislation this year guaranteeing federal protections and insurance coverage for IVF but Republicans blocked both efforts on grounds that the procedure was not under threat in most states.
