Reactionary legislation is being considered in Congress that would require the health plans covering the majority of American workers and their families to provide coverage for in vitro fertilization (IVF). Christians and Christian employers will certainly be troubled by this legislation.
The bill, introduced by Republican Sen. Roger Marshall and Democrat Sen. Cory Booker, requires coverage not only for infertile male-female couples but even for same-sex couples or transgender-identifying employees. The bill appears to require coverage for medical and IVF costs associated with surrogacy, including commercial surrogacy.
Although IVF supporters are touting IVF generally and this bill specifically as pro-family and pro-life, nothing could be further from the truth. A significant fact for religious employers is that only about 10 percent of lab-created embryos are born alive. Indeed, IVF procedures treat embryos — tiny humans — as commodities to serve the needs of adults who may not even be related to them. Many embryos don’t survive the freezing or thawing process, or the transfer via a needle into the mother’s or surrogate’s uterus.
Any expansion of IVF insurance coverage will give aid and comfort to a largely unregulated industry that exploits, harms, and kills the poor and vulnerable — in other words, some of the groups Christ said He came to save, whether embryonic or full-grown.
The industry expands the commercial surrogacy market that commodifies and sells the wombs of poor and desperate women, often nonwhite women or women in developing countries. IVF facilities and sperm banks purchase porn to fuel the masturbation often required to
