CNN
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President Donald Trump signed an executive order Tuesday to develop policy recommendations to expand access to and affordability of in vitro fertilization.
The executive order states that within 90 days, the assistant to the president for domestic policy should submit a list of “policy recommendations on protecting IVF access and aggressively reducing out-of-pocket and health plan costs for IVF treatment.”
“It is the policy of my Administration to ensure reliable access to IVF treatment, including by easing unnecessary statutory or regulatory burdens to make IVF treatment drastically more affordable,” the order also states.
“I think the women and families, husbands are very appreciative of it,” Trump said at Mar-a-Lago on Tuesday, where cameras did not capture him signing the order.
During the 2024 presidential campaign, Trump, who called himself the “father of IVF” at a Fox News town hall in October with an all-female audience, pledged to implement a policy to pay for in vitro fertilization treatments, without specifying how the treatments would be paid for.
“I’m announcing today in a major statement that under the Trump administration, your government will pay for, or your insurance company will be mandated to pay for, all costs associated with IVF treatment,” the president said at a Michigan campaign event in August.
Trump, along with a slew of Republican candidates and lawmakers, has stressed his support for access to IVF treatment after a 2024 Alabama Supreme Court ruling prompted national uproar and made the medical procedure a political flashpoint in the 2024 presidential campaign.
The Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos are children and those who destroy or damage them could be held liable for wrongful death. Critics warned at the time the ruling could have a chilling effect on infertility treatments and those who seek them. Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey, a Republican, later signed a bill to provide civil and criminal immunity to providers and patients.
Trump sought to distance himself from the ruling, insisting he “strongly” supports “the availability of IVF for couples” and called on Alabama lawmakers to “act quickly to find an immediate solution” to keep the procedure available in the state.
While Trump pledged to make IVF more accessible last year, Republicans in Congress stopped short of guaranteeing nationwide access to the procedure.
In June, Senate Republicans blocked a bill put forward by Democrats that would have done just that, criticizing the legislation as unnecessary and a political messaging vote. Republican lawmakers last year introduced their own bills on IVF and contraception, though none passed out of Congress.
CNN’s Clare Foran and Ted Barrett contributed to this report.
