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It may seem like pronatalism is the province of the Right, but when it comes to technological intervention, everyone wants to be the champion of babymaking. In the 2024 presidential election, both parties rushed to lay claim to in vitro fertilization, the procedure responsible for nearly 100,000 births each year. As a vice presidential nominee, Tim Walz claimed to have used IVF to grow his family, despite using intrauterine insemination, an entirely different procedure. On the campaign trail, President Donald Trump boasted that he was “the father of IVF.”

As with many medical interventions associated with desperate would-be parents, there is money to be made with IVF. It is a $25 billion global industry, yet its success rate means it’s no panacea for struggling couples.

“Overall, first-time IVF success rates often fall between 25-30% for most intended parents,” Elite IVF reports. Many hopeful parents have to undergo three or more rounds of treatment and shell out tens of thousands of dollars to get their happy ending.

TRUMP WHITE HOUSE DENIES ABANDONING PLEDGE TO MAKE IVF AFFORDABLE

Access to IVF is now often framed as a human right. A 2024 editorial from the Lancet cautioned that “a profit-driven fertility industry cannot continue to prey on the vulnerabilities of people who desperately hope to have children,” arguing that significant problems associated with IVF........

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