Top photo caption: An American flag hangs on the U.S. Department of Labor headquarters in Washington Sept. 6, 2025. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and other Catholic groups submitted public comments in opposition to a proposed government regulation that would expand insurance coverage for in vitro fertilization, or IVF. OSV News photo/Daniel Becerril, Reuters
By OSV News
WASHINGTON OSV News – The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and other Catholic groups submitted public comments in opposition to a proposed government regulation that would expand insurance coverage for in vitro fertilization.
IVF is a form of fertility treatment opposed by the Catholic Church because it separates procreation from the marital act and often involves the destruction of human embryos, among other concerns.
The proposed regulation, announced in May by the U.S. Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and the U.S. Treasury, aims to help implement President Donald Trump’s February 2025 executive order to expand IVF access, the departments indicated. It would establish a new category of limited excepted benefits, similar to limited-scope dental or vision benefits, the departments said at the time.
In a 17-page public comment dated July 13 and addressed to the Labor Department, the Office of the General Counsel at the USCCB stated that it “appreciates the Departments’ recognition of infertility as a serious matter and their intent to support family formation.”
“The Church affirms the deep desire of spouses to welcome children and supports medical efforts to address infertility. At the same time, public policy should not promote practices that undermine the dignity of human life or sever the connection between procreation and the marital act,” the comment said. “The USCCB therefore evaluates the proposed rule both positively and critically.”
The comment was signed by William J. Quinn, general counsel for the USCCB, and Daniel Balserak, associate general counsel.
After explaining the Church’s objections to IVF, they urged the government to consider promoting instead what they called restorative reproductive medicine.
“RRM approaches generally recognize that infertility is a symptom of an underlying condition, not a disease in and of itself; and they therefore seek to restore normal reproductive function by identifying and treating its root causes,” they wrote. “In contrast to restorative reproductive medicine, in vitro fertilization does not aim to treat the underlying causes of infertility but seeks to bypass them – in a sense, overriding the symptom.”
The USCCB also urged that the final rule “should clarify that no employer, having chosen to offer fertility benefits, must cover any particular service, and should proactively protect the religious liberty and conscience rights of employers and employees.”
The comment was submitted on the final day of the public comment window for the proposed regulation.
“The proposed rule represents a valuable opportunity to advance real solutions to infertility that respect the God-given dignity of parents and of children, born and preborn,” the comment stated. “We urge the Departments to refocus the rule on therapeutic, restorative treatments, and to abandon its inclusion of IVF, which is profoundly flawed both legally and morally.”
The National Catholic Bioethics Center, the Catholic Medical Association and the National Association of Catholic Nurses USA filed a similar public comment. They argued that the proposal lacks sufficient conscience protections, among their other objections to IVF.
Catholic journalism is needed now more than ever. Please consider supporting this work by signing up for a SUBSCRIPTION (click HERE) or making a DONATION to The Monitor (click HERE). Thank you for your contribution.