President Donald Trump announced two new initiatives aimed at expanding access to in vitro fertilization (IVF), saying the measures will make fertility treatments more affordable and widely available.
Speaking from the Oval Office Oct. 16, Trump unveiled a partnership with pharmaceutical company EMD Serono, the maker of the fertility drug Gonal-F. He said the company has agreed to provide “massive discounts” on the fertility drugs through a new government website, TrumpRx.gov, set to launch in 2026.
According to a White House fact sheet, the deal will reduce fertility drug prices to match the lowest paid among developed nations, known as the “most-favored-nation” price.
.@POTUS announces that EMD Serono will provide huge discounts to all fertility drugs they sell in the U.S. — including GONAL-F.
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) October 16, 2025
"We want to make it easier for all couples to have babies, raise children, and start the families they've always dreamed about." ❤️ pic.twitter.com/wMJhRpkI14
“We’ll dramatically slash the cost of IVF and the treatment and many of the most common fertility drugs for countless millions of Americans,” Trump said. “Prices are going way down, way, way down. This will lead to many more beautiful American children.”
Trump also announced a new “benefit option” that will allow employers to offer fertility coverage directly to employees, similar to dental or vision insurance.
“With what we signed, Americans will be able to opt in to specialized coverage,” Trump said. “Just as they get vision and dental insurance, they can get fertility insurance for the first time.”
.@POTUS: "We're also taking historic steps to vasty expand access to insurance coverage for fertility care, including IVF… Effective immediately, for the first time ever, we will make it legal for companies to offer supplemental insurance plans specifically for fertility." pic.twitter.com/GilZf4yuxU
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) October 16, 2025
He said the coverage “will reduce the number of people who ultimately need to resort to IVF” by helping couples identify and treat fertility problems early, adding that the result will be “healthier pregnancies, healthier babies, and many more beautiful American children.”
In a joint statement, the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Treasury said they plan to propose new rules to provide “additional ways that certain fertility benefits may be offered as a limited excepted benefit” and are considering changes to how supplemental health plans qualify.
Notably, the plan does not mandate participation or provide subsidies for employers who choose to offer the coverage.
CatholicVote President Kelsey Reinhardt criticized Trump’s efforts to promote IVF, warning that IVF destroys human embryos, thus resulting in the death of innocent human lives. She also called on the administration to look into the growing fields of medicine that address the root causes of infertility without compromising on the dignity of unborn life.
“As Catholics who believe every human life begins at conception and deserves protection, we are deeply disappointed by the White House’s decision to promote IVF, a practice that routinely destroys or discards embryonic children in the name of ‘treatment,’” Reinhardt said immediately after the announcement. “The longing for a child is holy, but a child can never be the product of a laboratory process that treats life as disposable.”
“We urge President Trump to reconsider this approach” Reinhardt continued, “and instead fully commit to the far better path already hinted at in his policy: addressing the root causes of infertility. Restorative Reproductive Medicine (RRM) offers real, ethical care by diagnosing and healing the underlying conditions that prevent conception, rather than bypassing the body through an expensive, low-success, morally unacceptable procedure like IVF.”
“America should invest in medicine that heals, not in an industry that creates life only to discard it,” she said. “True compassion respects both the dignity of the parents and the lives of their unborn children, every single one of them.”
Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life, called the announcement the “second disappointment in two weeks” from the administration, referencing its recent approval of a generic abortion drug.
President Trump’s IVF announcement is the second disappointment in two weeks from his team.
— Kristan Hawkins (@KristanHawkins) October 16, 2025
While it could have been worse, it’s still a reflection that they aren't totally on board.
I’m thankful there’s no new healthcare mandate forcing coverage for the destructive IVF… pic.twitter.com/KS7ToOJ32b
“I’m thankful there’s no new healthcare mandate forcing coverage for the destructive IVF industry, but IVF, as it’s practiced, still destroys countless humans in the embryonic stage,” Hawkins continued. “It’s time to find real solutions that help families grow and flourish without killing Life in the process.”
As CatholicVote explained in a previous report, the Catholic Church teaches that IVF violates human dignity by separating procreation from the marital act and often destroying human life. However, recognizing that the burden of infertility weighs heavily on some couples, the Church supports ethical alternatives, often termed restorative reproductive medicine (RRM), which seek to uncover and treat the causes of infertility rather than bypass them.
Beyond moral concerns, critics warn that IVF can pose medical and legal risks. In one recent case, a Georgia woman sued an IVF clinic after discovering that the child she gave birth to was not biologically hers due to an embryo mix-up.
Trump’s announcement follows a February executive order expanding IVF access, which drew similar backlash, including from Bishop Michael Burdrige of Arlington, Virginia, who urged elected officials to support families in better ways.
In August, The New York Times reported that the administration had studied more ethical options, including RRM, which many view as a morally sound alternative to IVF, CatholicVote reported.
Several Republicans have pressed for greater scrutiny of IVF in recent months in particular, after the Alabama Supreme Court ruled last year that frozen embryos created through IVF should rightfully be considered children.