What Trump’s IVF executive order means for access to fertility assistance for Americans

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• John Yang:

  One of the executive orders President Trump signed this past week seeks policy recommendations to expand access to in vitro fertilization. According to a 2024 survey, one in 10 women of reproductive age say they've received fertility assistance, including IVF.

  But insurance coverage for the procedure is limited and paying out of pocket is out of reach for many families. Ali Rogin spoke with Barbara Collura, who's president and CEO of Resolve, the National Infertility Association, which advocates for people experiencing challenges building families.

• Ali Rogin:

  Barbara, thanks for joining us. I want to play you what then candidate Trump said on the campaign trail about IVF.

• Donald Trump, U.S. President:

  Under the Trump administration, we are going to be paying for that treatment. So we are paying for that treatment or we're going —

• Woman:

  All Americans who want it.

• Donald Trump:

  All Americans that get it, all Americans that need it. So we're going to be paying for that treatment or we're going to be mandating that the insurance company pay.

  Ali Rogin How does this executive order stack up to that campaign pledge?

  Barbara Collura, President and CEO, Resolve: Well, first of all, thank you so much for having me on. When candidate Trump said that on the campaign trail about covering IVF, we really didn't have a whole lot of detail and weren't really sure what was going to happen when this executive order came out. The executive order simply calls for policy recommendations to be provided to the White House within 90 days.

  So this executive order doesn't actually fulfill that campaign promise, but we look at this as a first step.

  Ali Rogin What are some of the barriers that women face, parents face when they're trying to access IVF?

• Barbara Collura:

  Well, it's interesting, you said women, about a third of infertility is due to male factors. So it's both a male and a female issue. And this is highly skilled medical treatment. Not everybody needs IVF that goes through infertility, but those that do it is a pretty intense process. It's medically taxing on your body. It takes a toll on your emotions. It is something that a lot of people are paying for out of pocket.

  In other words, their health insurance doesn't cover it. So they're having to figure out how to pay for this out of their savings or other means. So it is something that really encompasses your whole life.

  Ali Rogin Why do insurance providers tend not to treat IVF treatment the same way they do other medical treatments?

• Barbara Collura:

  Boy, I wish I knew. This has been our battle since IVF started, which was in 1981 here in the United States. Resolve has been advocating for insurance coverage for IVF since then, and we've gotten some laws passed in a few states, but it is a long haul.

  Insurance companies view this as elective, which is really disgusting to think about your reproductive system and a desire to reproduce and have a child as being elective. And so this is a continuous battle that we face at the state level and with employers, and certainly at the federal level as well.

  Ali Rogin This executive order is asking for policy recommendations to increase access and lower the costs. What would resolve, advise the Trump administration to do?

• Barbara Collura:

  Well, here's the good news. We've been doing this for a long time. There's already very effective policy recommendations sitting in Congress right now. We have several pieces of legislation that our community has supported, some quite honestly, for a decade or more, where it would cover people in the military, believe it or not, they don't have full access to IVF. It would cover our veterans, federal employees, and then it would also cover people with private insurance.

  We also have some issues with the Affordable Care Act, and people who get their insurance through those exchanges are left out of care. So we have already solved and done all the hard work on these policy recommendations. I kind of joke to my staff, we don't need 90 days.

  We've already figured this out as patient advocates, as an organization that's been doing this with partners in our space, for sure, the physicians and others who've been working at this for a long time.

  Ali Rogin At the same time President Trump is putting out this executive order, there are efforts on the state level that go in a different direction. In Alabama, the Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos that were unused in the course of IVF were children. So is this going to set up a clash between federal and state efforts when it comes to IVF?

• Barbara Collura:

  You know, it's really interesting you bring this up because you could think of what happened in Alabama very differently from IVF insurance, and it's actually interrelated. We look at our work as protecting access to IVF as well as expanding access through insurance coverage. And let's be honest, why go to all that effort and work to expand access to IVF?

  In other words, getting more insurance when it's not even protected? And so we see this as going hand in hand. We'd love to see federal protections. That way we don't need to worry about a state doing something and then get this insurance coverage for everybody.

  Ali Rogin Barbara Collura, President and CEO of Resolve, the National Infertility Association, thank you so much for joining us.

• Barbara Collura:

  Thank you.