WASHINGTON, D.C. (LifeSiteNews) — Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson has been accused of working to remove a guarantee to cover embryo-destructive in vitro fertilization (IVF) services for all active-duty military families from the annual National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), although he is so far refusing to specify what his exact position is.
Military.com reports that, according to Democrat Sen. Tammy Duckworth, Johnson is quietly working behind the scenes to eliminate a provision that would expand IVF coverage from the current policy, which is only for infertility due to a “serious or severe illness or injury while on active duty,” to all servicemembers regardless of medical condition.
“This is yet another excuse from Speaker Mike Johnson in a pathetic attempt to carry out his extreme, right-wing belief that considers hopeful parents who depend on IVF—and their doctors—as murderers,” said Duckworth.
In response, Johnson’s office said only that the “Speaker has clearly and repeatedly stated he is supportive of access to IVF when sufficient pro-life protections are in place, and he will continue to be supportive when it is done responsibly and ethically.”
However, the IVF process is always gravely unethical, as it entails the conscious creation of scores of “excess” embryonic humans only to be killed and human lives being treated like commodities to be bartered over. It has been estimated that more than a million embryos are frozen in storage in the United States following IVF and that as many as 93 percent of all embryos created through IVF are eventually destroyed. A 2019 NBC News profile of Florida IVF practitioner Craig Sweet acknowledged that his practice has discarded or abandoned approximately a third of the embryos it places in cold storage.
Yet the political lines of the issue were blurred when the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos qualified as children in a wrongful death suit, thrusting the issue into the national spotlight. Most national Republicans rushed to declare their support for IVF (with just a handful of exceptions). Leading the charge was President Donald Trump, who cast himself as a “leader on fertilization” and even promised to enact a new federal entitlement to IVF, whether through direct subsidy or insurance mandate (though he also suggested he would support religious exemptions to the latter).
Shortly after his return to the presidency, Trump signed an executive order directing his administration to brainstorm administrative action and policy recommendations to strengthen IVF “access” and “affordability,” though not yet committing to a specific policy. In May, the White House was preparing a report on ways to combat infertility and as part of those discussions is weighing a slate of policy ideas, including adding IVF coverage to U.S. military health insurance, declaring IVF an “essential health benefit” that must be covered under the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), and calling on Congress to enact a federal mandate for private insurance companies to cover IVF.
The White House eventually backed away from the idea of mandating IVF, but said it still wanted to find a way to deliver on Trump’s campaign pledge. Last month, Trump announced he had struck a deal to reduce IVF costs and increase IVF “access” by (among other actions on lower prices for fertility drugs) creating a new benefit option specifically covering IVF and other reproductive interventions for employers to offer their employees.
U.S. Secretary of Health & Human Services (HHS) Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told Trump that he would “get into heaven” thanks to the move.
