California’s new law requiring insurance companies to cover fertility treatments undermines the pervasive narrative that infertility is a painful struggle to which in vitro fertilization is the compassionate solution.
Infertility is a struggle, which is why Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) pushed to alleviate it, however unethical his conclusion.
Per the bill Newsom has signed into law, California will regulate the offerings of private insurance providers such that they cover fertility treatments, including IVF. In addition, the law removes the qualification requirement for couples to have been trying to conceive naturally for a year.
The obvious intention with the latter stipulation is accessibility for gay couples and unmarried people. It opens the door to anyone who wants to start a family, regardless of the previous choices they have made against that desire. With the expansion of the rules of IVF, then, the narrative promoting the procedure must also shift.
Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) is the best example of how the slightest criticism of the child-free lifestyle has been near-unspeakable in recent months. Backlash centers on just how painful and sad infertility is for a couple and how insolent one has to be to use it as a talking point. Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) and his wife are the Democratic Party’s most valuable proponents of this stance, presenting their experience as one deeply personal and “a desperation that can eat away at your soul.”
Persuasion for IVF support generally follows along those lines: IVF is something to which disheartened couples have recourse after trying hard to have a family. Many Republicans, too, have promoted IVF as “profoundly pro-family” in its production of children. Despite statistics that tell us it is older, well-educated women who comprise the bulk of IVF customers, the process is framed as a last hope for couples who have done all they can to orient their lives toward having children.
Instead, California’s legislation makes IVF a first choice. It is a “never mind” to whether the procedure should even be available in favor of rewriting what infertility really is. Oddly, the new law undoes a lot of the rhetorical work Walz has done to garner support for IVF.
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But that was probably on the table all along. The Democratic Party has its eye on “reproductive rights,” and IVF is a way to keep the scope broad. It is no secret that Vice President Kamala Harris thinks children are some sort of public good. Newsom’s move communicates the Left’s goal to make the family a right rather than a sacrificial choice, much like its success in promulgating same-sex unions.
Former President Donald Trump has blurred the lines enough with his promises of free and “universal” IVF. He has been vague enough on details but is clear in what direction those ideas lead. If the GOP does not want to publish the Left’s new narrative, it needs to clarify its position.