Sen. Lindsey Graham on Sunday rejected former President Donald Trump’s recent proposal to make in-vitro fertilization (IVF) treatments free nationwide, cautioning that there would be “no end” to the demand.
When asked on ABC News’ “This Week” whether he would support insurance companies and the federal government picking up the tab, Graham (R-SC) said, “No, I wouldn’t because there’s no end to that.”
“I would support a tax credit, means-tested – kind of like we do with children. That makes sense to me to encourage people to have children,” he told ABC’s Jonathan Karl.
Trump, 78, promised the no-strings-attached access to IVF treatments during a rally in Michigan last Thursday.
“Under the Trump administration, your government will pay for — or your insurance company will be mandated to pay for — all costs associated with IVF treatment,” he told supporters.
“We want more babies, to put it very nicely. And for the same reason, we will also allow new parents to deduct major newborn expenses from their taxes.”
Even if insurance companies shoulder more of the burden than the federal government, increased costs are likely to be passed on to taxpayers through higher policy premiums.
IVF treatments rack up between $15,000 to $20,000 per cycle, according to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and more than 400,000 procedures took place in 2021, per Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data.
The policy proposal could cost as much as $7 billion per year, experts previously told The Post, though its unclear exactly how a second Trump administration would implement it.
Vanessa Brown Calder, the director of Opportunity and Family Policy Studies at the libertarian Cato Institute, cautioned that even the multi-billion-dollar price tag “understates the true long-term costs of the program.”
“Most IVF patients are currently self-pay and this limits IVF use,” Calder said. “Moreover, government-funded IVF would create new incentives for couples to delay childbearing or engage in elective fertility preservation, leading to growing use and reliance on fertility treatment long-term.”
Some legislative avenues have also already been floated for the government-funded coverage.
A House bill introduced by Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer (R-Ore.) in June could require insurance companies to label infertility as a covered medical condition, or Congress could instead amend former President Barack Obama’s signature 2010 health care law, the Affordable Care Act, to include IVF coverage.
Trump could also issue an executive order extending the cost-free IVF treatments to all federal workers, military members and veterans — though that would likely face legal challenges.
IVF has become a political football since an Alabama Supreme Court decision in February ruled that embryos resulting from medical intervention were unborn children.
The procedure combines female eggs and male sperm in a lab to create an embryo that can start a pregnancy. But that can also lead to the production of extra embryos that are frozen, donated or discarded.
Alabama later passed a law that granted criminal and civil immunity to IVF clinics.
Senate Democrats held a vote on another bill, the Right to IVF Act, in June, which would have codified a right to access the treatments, but Republicans voted it down.
While Democrats pointed to the need to pass IVF protections after the overturning of Roe v. Wade in June 2022, Republicans dismissed the exercise as a show vote.
Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.) said the Right to IVF Act would infringe on religious liberties, while other Senate Republicans pointed out the procedure was legal in all 50 states already.
Britt later introduced a competing IVF bill that was blocked by Senate Democrats.
Two months before, Graham had also earned Trump’s ire by proposing a 15-week federal abortion ban.
“The Democrats are thrilled with Lindsey, because they want this Issue to simmer for as long a period of time as possible,” the former president griped on Truth Social.
After Roe was struck down, Trump and most Republicans have said the abortion issue should be decided solely by the states.
