74% of Americans support IVF — and a third believe Republicans want to limit access, Yahoo News/YouGov poll finds
Today about 2% of babies in the U.S. are conceived via in vitro fertilization (IVF) — a complex and expensive process in which an egg is fertilized with sperm outside of the human body, then placed inside a uterus.
During IVF, it's common for multiple eggs to be fertilized and for unused fertilized eggs to be discarded later — which has led some conservatives who believe that life begins at conception to seek limits to the procedure.
At a Thursday campaign event, former President Donald Trump said that he wants to make IVF free for all women — "because we want more babies, to put it nicely." Trump didn't go into details about the policy proposal.
His statement is notable because it comes at a time when the procedure has become increasingly partisan and when Democrats have been using it as a wedge issue on the campaign trail.
Most Americans are standing firmly behind IVF, according to a Yahoo News/YouGov poll; 74% of Americans say they believe IVF should be either more accessible than it is now (55%) or as accessible as it is currently (19%) to people who are trying to conceive children. Just 4% of Americans say IVF should be less accessible, and 23% aren’t sure.
Some background on the fight over IVF
When the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, rescinding the decades-old federal constitutional right to an abortion, many were worried that the decision would open a Pandora’s box of restrictions on reproductive rights, including limiting access to IVF.
In February, those concerns appeared to be materializing when the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that embryos created through IVF could be considered children under state law — which led several of the state’s IVF clinics to pause services for fear of prosecution if they discarded any unused embryos. Alabama quickly passed a law to protect IVF in the state, but the Alabama Supreme Court’s decision was still widely met with criticism. The recent Yahoo News/YouGov poll, which surveyed 1,788 U.S. adults from Aug. 22 to Aug. 26, found that 43% of Americans disagreed with the Alabama State Supreme Court’s decision, while 24% agreed and 33% weren’t sure.
Republicans and Democrats alike have since defended the use of IVF, but Americans appear to be somewhat skeptical of the GOP’s position. Over a third of Americans (37%) believe Republicans want to limit access to IVF, according to the Yahoo News/YouGov poll. And 42% say they trust the Democratic Party more on the issue of IVF, while just 23% trust Republicans more.
Some evangelical sects of the Republican Party are indeed hoping to make IVF the next battleground in the anti-abortion agenda. In June, the influential Southern Baptist Convention voted at its annual meeting to condemn the use of IVF. That same month, Senate Republicans blocked a bill proposed by Senate Democrats that would have guaranteed IVF access nationwide.
What do fertility experts think?
Dr. Colleen Milroy, medical director of the University of North Carolina Fertility Clinic, says she’s surprised that more Americans don’t think IVF access is a common problem. Not only are delays in obtaining fertility treatments frustrating for people eager to start a family, but they also escalate the rapidly declining U.S. birth rate.
“With rates of infertility increasing and the U.S. no longer hitting birth rates that will allow for replacement levels, we are going to have to address this concern in a systematic and national way,” Milroy tells Yahoo Life.
She says cost is a major deterrent for prospective parents. IVF is incredibly expensive; it generally takes three cycles to be successful, and just one round costs an average of $20,000 — which often isn’t covered by insurance. Improving provider access and insurance coverage could help make IVF more available, but the price tag isn’t the only problem; geographic access and “health care deserts” are another barrier.
Dr. Alex Robles, a reproductive endocrinologist at the Columbia University Fertility Center, agrees. “Beyond the financial barriers, there are also geographical and educational hurdles to overcome,” Robles tells Yahoo Life. “Many people, especially in rural areas, lack easy access to fertility clinics. There also needs to be more widespread education about fertility issues and treatment options.”
Dr. Ruben Alvero, director of the Fertility and Reproductive Health Program at Stanford Medicine Children’s Health, tells Yahoo Life that the Yahoo News/YouGov poll showing broad support for IVF was “not at all surprising” to him — despite “recent unfortunate politically motivated attacks on IVF.” The United States may have varying levels of coverage and accessibility to IVF, but Alvero says that in his experience, Americans’ support for fertility treatments are generally positive.
“I have practiced in Rhode Island, where it was generously mandated for commercial insurers to pay for the service, in Colorado where there was no mandate at the time I was there, and in California, which does not have a mandate but where most of the tech companies provide coverage as a recruitment tool,” Alvero says. “In all these states, patient’s general attitudes were the same: Infertility is a disease like any other, and treatment should be supported as any other infirmity.”
