United States: The Debate Over IVF Enters the Presidential Campaign

Taking note of the situation, many clinics in the state decided to suspend their in vitro fertilization (IVF) activities. This suspension created a wave of panic among Alabama elected officials, both in the House of Representatives and the Senate.

A few days later, on February 29, the Alabama House of Representatives hastened to bypass the court and approved a text granting "civil and criminal immunity for death or damage to an embryo to any individual or entity when providing or receiving goods or services related to in vitro fertilization" (HB237).

The next day, March 1, the Senate, with a Republican majority, voted on a similar text, guaranteeing immunity "to persons providing goods and services related to in vitro fertilization in certain circumstances" (SB159).

These decisions quickly led to the two principal candidates in the presidential race, Joe Biden and Donald Trump, taking positions on the issue of assisted reproduction .

President Joe Biden did not hesitate to distance himself from the teaching of the Catholic Church. Owen Jensen, the EWTN White House correspondent, asked him: "The Catholic Church says IVF is immoral and wrong because it destroys countless human embryos. What do you say to that?" The leader of the Democratic party responded that he did not "agree with that position." 

As for former president Donald Trump, who wants to regain his place in the Oval Office, his position, although less clear-cut than Joe Biden's, is characterized by strong support for assisted reproductive technology. He called on the Alabama state legislature to "act quickly to find an immediate solution to preserve the availability of IVF in Alabama." 

"The Republican Party should always be on the side of the Miracle of Life - and the side of Mothers, Fathers, and their Beautiful Babies. IVF is an important part of that, and our Great Republican Party will always be with you, in your quest, for the ULTIMATE JOY IN LIFE!", he stated on February 23. 

More lucid, Joseph Meaney, president of the National Catholic Bioethics Center, believes that this political sequence highlighted the ignorance of public opinion regarding the Catholic position on IVF: "If you go to church faithfully for an entire year every Sunday, what are the chances of you hearing the Church’s teaching on IVF mentioned? It’s pretty low," he said. "There are tons of people who don’t know what the Church teaches."