Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life and Students for Life Action, says Christians are among the many who are confused about the medical procedure.
"Multiple humans are created in a petri dish," she explains. "Those humans – in embryonic form – are then graded based on how good their genetics are. Some of those embryos – humans in embryonic form – are immediately discarded, thrown away. So, they've been created, they're alive, they're a unique creation made in the image of God that are then thrown away."
She adds that many of them are frozen, and statistics show fewer than 10% of those humans in embryonic form will ever be born.
Hawkins understands that many couples, including Christian couples, struggle with infertility and look to options like IVF for a chance to experience creating life and raising a family.
"We're not saying that creating life is bad," the pro-lifer asserts. "We want more life; the question is the ethical nature of IVF."
She also takes exception to "the profiteering that the IVF industry is doing" off of couples in crisis who are desperate to have children.
President Donald Trump recently announced actions to lower costs and expand access to IVF and what his administration call "high quality fertility care."
It is a call for health insurance companies and employers to provide coverage that pays for IVF.
While Hawkins is glad it is not a mandate, her organization is still discouraged by it because it is essentially "a discount on these drugs that cause women to release more eggs … and this incentivization for employers to provide health insurance that pays for IVF."
"Here's the bottom line: if your health insurance intentionally kills human beings, whether it's abortion or through IVF, you're doing health insurance wrong, and you're doing healthcare wrong," Hawkins submits.
"The reality is IVF in America today is an unregulated wild, wild West," the pro-lifer submits. "It actually kills more human beings than abortion."
She invites anyone with questions about IVF to follow her on social media and to visit the Students for Life website for more information on the process.
"We need to be educating our pro-life members of Congress, we need to be educating this president about what IVF really is, and we need to be educating our friends and family members," says Hawkins. "We're not challenging ourselves to do better and to promote curative procedures, restorative reproductive medicines."
Meanwhile, she says the St. John Paul VI institute in Omaha, Nebraska, has helped so many couples struggling with infertility conceive holistically and ethically.
