Stop Mandated Coverage of Harmful IVF Practices

Stop Mandated Coverage of Harmful IVF Practices  

Urge legislators to oppose S.F. 1704 / H.F. 1658

Senate File 1704 and House File 1658 will mandate that health insurance plans, including those provided by religious organizations, cover unethical infertility interventions.   

The legislation is broad in scope, requiring coverage of testing and treatment of infertility but also interventions that remove the conception of the child from the union of his or her biological parents, such as in vitro fertilization.   

Services covered under this bill would include: 

• In vitro fertilization  
• Artificial insemination 
• Unlimited embryo transfers 
• Standard fertility preservation services  
• Oocyte retrieval (eggs taken from the ovaries) 
• Medications for these procedures  
• And more 

The bill also says that fertility services provided by third parties would be covered. This means that the creation of life is further separated from the conjugal act of a husband and wife due to the coverage of donated sperm or eggs. But it could also mean the use of someone else’s womb through a surrogacy arrangement. 

In addition, the method of single-embryo transfer is listed as preferred in the bill, which often goes hand in hand with genetic testing, which can involve eugenics practices to create “designer babies.” 

The risks to children conceived through ART are alarming. According to studies, ART-conceived children face higher rates of premature birth, low birth weight, and other health complications compared to naturally conceived children.   

If the violations of religious liberty through the insurance coverage mandate or the potential funding of eugenic practices do not prompt you to speak out, perhaps the dollar sign will. The bill does not set limits on the number of embryo transfers in IVF procedures to be covered, leading to concerns about the financial burden and the increased insurance premiums the public will face. With the average cost of one IVF cycle ranging from $15,000 to $30,000, and with three to four cycles often required for a viable pregnancy, the financial implications are staggering, reaching upwards of $120,000 or more.  Those costs will be passed onto insurance premiums that will raise insurance costs for employers and employees.   

Learn more about the high toll of assisted reproductive technologies here (www.mncatholic.org/ivf).

Church Teaching: 

The Church in Her wisdom teaches that there are ethical bounds to the conception of a child that must be safeguarded and that the scientific ability to create a child through various technological means does not make it just for the parents, child, or society.   

According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, “Techniques that entail the dissociation of husband and wife, by the intrusion of a person other than the couple … infringe the child's right to be born of a father and mother known to him and bound to each other by marriage. They betray the spouses' right to become a father and a mother only through each other." (CCC 2376)