One Christian's response to IVF
Being consistent in a wildly inconsistent world
As soon as President Trump delivered on his campaign promise to expand access to and protections for IVF, I shared the news on multiple platforms and briefly explained my opposition to it. Immediately after pushing “publish,” I received two types of responses—both on entirely different ends of the spectrum.
“Well, my baby was born using IVF, so I guess you don’t think they are important? I’ll pray for you!”
or
“Same. I don’t believe you can be pro-life and pro-IVF.”
Have you ever experienced knowing a thing but not really grasping it fully? That was me with this entire IVF discussion. I was aware of the variety of opinions surrounding the use and application of this somewhat modern technology. Still, I had never really stopped to think of the broader implications of such an inconsistent ethic surrounding a medical intervention, especially as it concerns the wider church. How was it possible that Bible-believing, church-going people could have such wildly different positions on what seems (at least to me) to be a pretty simple argument?
And then I realized that it comes down to the thing that’s been tearing apart the Protestant church for quite some time: emotionality and the quest for what makes us feel good.
I hate caveats. I think they make you appear fluffy and not resilient, and I am neither of those things. However, with how sensitive this topic seems to be, I feel the need to offer one:
Your children, family members, and loved ones who were born from IVF are precious and just as valuable as any other child born. Period, no equivocation whatsoever. It shouldn’t need to be said, but I’ll say it at the onset because almost every pro-IVF argument coming from a Christian seems to use the “so you’re saying my child isn’t worth being born!” strawman.
As I approach the IVF discussion, I do so as I do every other fraught topic - I lead with scripture, tack on factual data, and attempt to remain as logically consistent as I possibly can (knowing I am fallible and can be emotionally driven like every other female on the planet.) When babies are at the epicenter of any argument, I can tend to consider and make allowances that otherwise are outside of the realm of what I would generally accept, but I endeavor to remain clear-eyed about what it is we are genuinely defining here.
Is IVF truly pro-life, or is it a procedure to satisfy the wishes of adults at the expense of children and a Christ-centered view of life?
Another way to state this is that it really comes down to a lack of education and theological/moral clarity about what IVF actually entails. I think many people blindly support the concept because the church writ large has done a poor job catechizing their parishioners on a sexual ethic built off of Scripture. The Holy purpose for why God created the body, marriage, sex, and children has left the pulpit and has been replaced with a “whatever works for you” mentality.
And so we find ourselves in this moment where many Christians can’t properly articulate why IVF is good or bad, but I’d say the vast majority of us have a feeling deep down that there’s something “off” about it. It is almost the mirror image of why many non-believers know that abortion is wrong, but they can’t pinpoint why exactly. Something inside of us is wired to desire the truth. But so often, in both cases, the party involved makes no attempt to dig deeper, be consistent, and question why they feel unsettled. They do what feels good at the moment without reckoning with the impact of their decision.
The truth is that infertility can crush the spirit. It can leave mothers and fathers feeling isolated, doubting one another and the Lord. It can turn faithful hearts to desperation - questioning everything they know. It leaves people broken and full of sorrow. I’ve watched many people walk that road - some of them never realizing their deep yearning for a child of their own. It’s horrible, and I have deep compassion for those who have suffered in this way. If God says children are good, why does He choose for some to never experience His transformative gift of a baby?
Even still, the desire to bring life into the world should never supersede the right to life. Sadly, IVF (in the vast majority of cases in America) stands in opposition to a truly pro-life position. Simply saying that because IVF may produce a life, it is, therefore, pro-life or pro-family doesn’t make it so. What actually happens in the process of IVF that makes it inherently anti-life?
Let’s talk about it.
If we, as Christians and/or pro-life advocates, want to remain logically and spiritually consistent, we must acknowledge that life begins at conception. I know this is another area where people get fuzzy, but we can’t afford to. Either life begins at conception and is valuable starting at day one, or it doesn’t, and the fetus doesn’t deserve rights or to be considered life until it’s born. There’s no other way of looking at it - the “gestational week” game has been played for years, and the semantic hoops people force themselves to jump through in order to explain why life at 6 weeks is less valuable than one at 24 falls apart every time.
Therefore, if we agree to acknowledge that life is ordained by Christ and begins at conception, we have to reckon with what IVF does to women, what it does to an ordained and precious life, and what it does to a culture that refuses to acknowledge this frankenstien-esque scientific experiment.
When it comes to IVF, it’s damaging tentacles are varied:
We could talk about the hormones they give to women and what they disrupt and damage.
We could talk about separating conception from the natural union (children created in a petri dish as opposed to the sexual union between a man and a woman.) Not all family formations are equally moral, and we must be honest about that.
We could talk about how the fertility industry in our country is almost entirely unregulated and serves as a money-making machine (in 2022, the global IVF industry was valued at $35 billion.)
We could talk about the many times there are “mistakes” made and couples don’t end up with their child but someone else’s.
We could discuss the eugenics used in embryo selection at IVF clinics all over the country (this survey published by the “Journal of Assisted Reproduction and Genetics” states that 73% of U.S. fertility clinics offer gender selection.)
We could talk about the dystopian reality that most embryos sit on ice for years and years, with the exception of a small number being given the opportunity of life up to 30 years after retrieval.
All of that needs sorted issues must be discussed, and each of those topics works in tandem toward an anti-human agenda (which I wrote about here.) For today, we are going to focus on only one tentacle: the forgotten and abandoned embryos.
If you’re unfamiliar with what IVF entails, here’s a brief explainer: A woman takes hormone medications to stimulate her ovaries to produce multiple eggs rather than the single egg typically released during a menstrual cycle (the hormones used are a whole other discussion for another day.) Once the eggs are mature, a doctor retrieves them from the ovaries using a surgical procedure, usually guided by ultrasound. The male partner (or a donor - again, another whole other discussion) provides a sperm sample, which is processed to select the healthiest sperm. In a lab, the eggs and sperm are combined. This can happen by mixing them together or by directly injecting sperm into an egg (a method called ICSI—intracytoplasmic sperm injection). The fertilized eggs (now embryos) are monitored as they develop, typically for 3-5 days. One or more embryos are placed into the woman’s uterus, hoping they implant and lead to a pregnancy. Extra embryos are frozen for later use, used for medical experimentation, or discarded.
According to 2021 data:
Presuming a conservative estimate that only 10 embryos are created in an average round of IVF, this means that the 413,776 rounds of IVF reported in 2021 resulted in the creation of approximately 4.1 million embryos. When dividing the total number of live-born infants by 4.1 million, this would mean that only 2.3 percent of all embryos created in the United States result in the live birth of a baby. Source.
Another study:
In-vitro fertilization (IVF) is carried out 2.5 million times annually around the world — but each year only 500,000 babies are actually born from the IVF procedure, according to research published in Reproductive Biomedicine Online. That means that each year, if just one embryo is created during each IVF cycle (the average is seven), at least 80% — at least two million — of the human beings created through IVF either die during the process, are frozen indefinitely, or are destroyed. According to the World Health Organization, there are 73 million induced abortions each year around the world and 29% of all pregnancies end in induced abortion. This means that when comparing rates — human beings are being destroyed by IVF at a higher rate than they are by abortion. Source.
The part of that first statement that slapped me in the face is that approximately 4.1 million embryos were created in one year. IN ONE YEAR ALONE. This is the part of the conversation where most pro-IVF people enter the chat and say, “Well, my cousin did IVF, and she chose to use all of the embryos retrieved, so it can be done ethically!” Setting aside the fact that there are other “tentacles” of concern surrounding this practice (stated above), this argument falls flat because the overwhelming majority of women do not choose to use all of their embryos.
The truth is that IVF destroys many more lives than any form of abortion, not to mention the ghastly dystopia it ushers in. Children are a blessing and a profound desire of many. Still, to excuse the funneling of money into an industry that commodifies the creation and storing of human life simply so adults can be satiated, well, it isn’t right. We have to be able to admit that.
Children are not products, and as much as it hurts to express, the fact remains that couples don’t have a “right” to be parents, no matter how desperately they desire it. Simply because a woman wants to become a mother, that doesn’t mean she should be able to become one at all costs - especially in exchange for the cost of life for millions and millions of babies, which is what upholding the big fertility business costs us.
If life really begins at conception (which is a scientific fact), we must be prepared to remain morally and scientifically consistent and rightfully say that IVF is catastrophic. Christians and deeply thinking humans alike must be willing to set aside the narrative they have been fed by our culture and the ambivalence that much of the church has adopted. If we really believe what Psalm 139:13-16 claims
13 For You formed my inward parts;
You covered me in my mother’s womb.
14 I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
Marvelous are Your works,
And that my soul knows very well.
15 My frame was not hidden from You,
When I was made in secret,
And skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed.
And in Your book they all were written,
The days fashioned for me,
When as yet there were none of them…
we must reckon with all of the millions and millions of fearfully and wonderfully made lives that are stuck inside a freezer all across the country. We have to look that in the face.
It’s a time to be clear-eyed and stand firm, even if it’s challenging and even if you find your knees buckling. Being ambiguous and inconsistent on issues of life and death, sin and truth is what has brought us to the place where we are.
No more.
“Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will” Romans 12:2
Rachel, your paragraph starting with infertility can crush the spirit described my experience with IVF so well. I could not have written it better and I lived it for two years. I am Catholic and felt so isolated and strayed away from attending Mass during that time. I questioned why God would let us suffer with multiple miscarriages and “unexplained”infertility. We had our first son with IVF 16 years ago. We then went through several frozen embryo transfer attempts until there were none left. None of them resulted in a second pregnancy. We were blessed with a second son two and half years later the way God intended. I struggle with the fact we used IVF although the industry was very different 16 years ago. There was no genetic testing of embryos then. Thank you for your writing. I agree with the premise that the child’s life is more important than the want/ desire of adults to be parents at all costs. It needs to be talked about more. Couples should pause and pray more instead of going straight into IVF. Thank you again for writing about such a difficult but important topic.
Excellent post—while the biblical argument against IVF should be enough, I truly appreciate the scientific sources you shared. It’s high time the church tackles these hard, but necessary topics.