The House passed a defense authorization bill on December 10 without the provision that would have mandated TRICARE coverage for in vitro fertilization (IVF) for active-duty military members and their dependents. The original provision required the Defense Secretary to ensure fertility-related care, including IVF, was covered under TRICARE Prime and TRICARE Select. Pro-life groups expressed approval regarding the removal of the IVF coverage mandate from the bill. The IVF provision had also been eliminated from the defense authorization bill in the previous year. The bill passed the House with a vote of 312-112, and it now moves to the Senate for consideration.
5 days ago
The U.S. House of Representatives passed the National Defense Authorization Act (S. 1071) on December 10, 2025, by a vote of 312-112.1 2 3 This annual bill authorizes defense spending and policies for the upcoming fiscal year. The Senate is expected to consider it next.
The final version of the bill excluded a controversial provision that would have mandated coverage of in vitro fertilization (IVF) under TRICARE Prime and Select for active-duty military members and their dependents.1 2 3 TRICARE currently does not cover IVF treatments.1 This marks the second consecutive year the provision was stripped shortly before House consideration.2
Pro-life organizations expressed strong approval over the IVF provision's removal.1 2 3 Live Action President Lila Rose commended House Speaker Mike Johnson for preventing TRICARE from subsidizing what she called "the destruction of life."1 2 3 Students for Life Vice President Kristy Hamrick described IVF as a "business model that by design destroys far more lives than are allowed to live," arguing it preys on hopes for parenthood while ending many embryonic lives.1 2 3
Critics highlighted the IVF industry's lack of oversight, which they say leads to the creation and destruction of tens of thousands of "excess" embryos annually.1 2 3 The Advancing American Freedom Foundation, led by former Vice President Mike Pence, noted that many pro-life Americans oppose IVF due to its standard process involving embryo destruction.1 Family Research Council President Tony Perkins praised the decision, stating taxpayers' dollars should not fund such practices.1 2 3
President Donald Trump had campaigned on making IVF free, but a spokesperson for Speaker Johnson emphasized Republican efforts to lower IVF costs while expanding access with "sufficient pro-life protections" in place.1 2 3 Johnson has repeatedly voiced support for ethical IVF approaches.1 Advocates like Perkins promoted alternatives such as Restorative Reproductive Medicine, which respects human dignity, treats infertility causes, and achieves success without embryo destruction.1 2 3 Hamrick suggested the funding shift could redirect resources toward better family-building solutions.1
Evaluate Catholic teaching on assisted reproduction and state responsibility
Catholic teaching firmly upholds the sanctity of human life from conception and the inseparability of the unitive and procreative dimensions of the marital act. Assisted reproductive technologies, such as in vitro fertilization (IVF) and artificial insemination, are evaluated through this lens, revealing profound ethical concerns. These methods are seen as morally unacceptable because they dissociate procreation from the natural, conjugal union of spouses, treating children as products to be manufactured rather than gifts from God. In Evangelium Vitae, Pope John Paul II explains that such techniques, while intended to serve life, introduce new threats by exposing embryos to high failure rates and risks of death, often resulting in the destruction or exploitation of "spare embryos" as mere biological material. This violates the dignity of the human person, who must be respected from the moment of conception as a unique individual with an inviolable right to life.
The Church's doctrine on marriage further underscores this position. In Casti Connubii, Pope Pius XI teaches that any deliberate frustration of the marital act's natural power to generate life constitutes a grave sin against the law of God and nature. Extending this principle, artificial reproduction is intrinsically disordered because it substitutes human intervention for the divine plan inscribed in the body's language during intercourse. Humanae Vitae by Pope Paul VI emphasizes responsible parenthood within the full context of married love, rejecting methods that manipulate procreation apart from the spouses' mutual self-giving. The encyclical praises human intelligence's role in collaborating with creation but insists it must align with moral law, not override it through technological dominance.
Moreover, prenatal diagnostic techniques and embryo experimentation, often linked to assisted reproduction, are condemned when they lead to selective abortion or eugenic practices. Evangelium Vitae states that using embryos as objects for research or as providers of organs is a crime against their dignity, equivalent to that owed to any born child. Even procedures aimed at healing must respect the embryo's integrity without disproportionate risks. Pope Benedict XVI in Caritas in Veritate warns of biotechnology's risks, including IVF and cloning, which foster a "culture of death" by reducing life to manipulable material and enabling eugenic programming of births. This mechanistic view erodes human dignity, prioritizing control over ethical limits. Pope Francis echoes this in Laudato Si', affirming the Church's support for scientific progress in genetics and biology but cautioning against indiscriminate genetic manipulation that ignores ecological and ethical consequences. Human intervention in creation is permissible only within reasonable limits that respect life's integrity, as the Catechism teaches regarding animal experimentation—a principle extending to human embryos.
The state bears a moral responsibility to safeguard the common good, particularly the protection of human life and the family, which is the foundational cell of society. Catholic social teaching calls on civil authorities to enact laws aligned with the natural moral law, ensuring that bioethical advancements do not undermine dignity. In his message to the Social Weeks of France, Pope John Paul II urges legislators to regulate civil law according to fundamental moral norms in areas like human rights, life, and the family, as outlined in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith's Donum Vitae. Political choices must prioritize the good of persons and society, not yield to science's demands without ethical scrutiny, challenging techniques that deny human dignity.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church articulates the state's duty to promote citizens' well-being, including demographic orientation through objective information, but prohibits coercive or authoritarian measures in procreation. Spouses hold primary responsibility for begetting and educating children, and the state may not usurp this through means contrary to moral law, such as mandating or facilitating illicit reproductive technologies. Addressing diplomats, John Paul II highlights the state's primary task to safeguard life, especially at its beginnings, declaring that violating the embryo's integrity—through assisted procreation or stem cell research—is ethically inadmissible. The family, as a union between man and woman open to life, must be protected from laws that challenge its natural structure or promote unnatural visions of human love.
This responsibility extends to combating broader social threats. In Fratelli Tutti, Pope Francis describes political love as building just institutions that prevent exclusion and protect the vulnerable, including the unborn. Politicians must tend to human needs with strength and tenderness, ensuring effective measures against scourges like human trafficking and exploitation, which can parallel the commodification in assisted reproduction. Organizing society to avoid poverty and marginalization is an act of charity, akin to constructing bridges over rivers of suffering rather than mere individual aid. The Church, while respecting political autonomy, insists on engaging publicly to advance universal fraternity and human development. Solidarity manifests in service to the vulnerable, setting aside ideological pursuits to care for human fragility. Thus, the state must legislate against practices that treat life as disposable, fostering a culture of respect rather than control.
Catholic teaching acknowledges the pain of infertility, encouraging couples to seek ethical paths like natural family planning or adoption, while supporting research on adult stem cells that avoids embryo harm. Controversy arises in areas like prenatal diagnostics, which are licit if aimed at therapy or informed acceptance of the child, but illicit if eugenic intent leads to abortion. Where sources align—such as across papal encyclicals—there is consensus on the moral illegitimacy of assisted reproduction; no significant divergences appear in the provided references, with more recent documents like Evangelium Vitae and Laudato Si' reinforcing earlier ones like Casti Connubii.
In practice, this calls believers to advocate for policies that prioritize ethical science and family support, resisting pressures from a secular culture that normalizes these technologies.
In summary, Catholic doctrine rejects assisted reproduction as a violation of marital unity and human dignity, while entrusting the state with the imperative to enact protective laws rooted in moral truth. This framework promotes a vision of life as sacred, urging both individuals and societies to honor God's design in creation.