Two House Republicans urge lawmakers to remove IVF expansion from defense funding bill

Two House Republicans on Thursday urged the House and Senate Armed Services committees not to allow stipulations into the annual defense funding bill that would expand access to in vitro fertilization (IVF).

IVF emerged as a polarizing topic within the Republican Party earlier this year, after the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos from IVF were children in February. IVF is primarily used as a treatment for infertility for families that want biological children.

GOP Reps. Matt Rosendale of Montana and Josh Brecheen of Oklahoma highlighted a portion of the text from the House passed funding bill, which would expand the military's Tricare program to include "Assisted Reproductive Technology" services, including IVF treatments.

“As you finalize the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2025, we respectfully urge you not to include any House or Senate provisions that expand In Vitro Fertilization (IVF). Specifically, the House passed Section 701," the lawmakers wrote in a letter to the committees, first reported by The Hill. 

“Section 701 is a dramatic expansion of IVF that will cost taxpayers approximately $1 billion per year," the lawmakers continued. "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."

Rosendale is considered one of IVF's biggest critics in the House, and has filed multiple pieces of legislation to prevent the government from covering IVF procedures.

One main reason that the topic is considered controversial is because the process typically destroys unused but still viable embryos, which reopens the question on when life begins. Pro-life advocates usually believe that life begins at conception.

“IVF continues to be heavily underregulated and is done without the needed ethical guidelines in place," the duo wrote. “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."

Misty Severi is an evening news reporter for Just the News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.