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WASHINGTON, D.C. (LifeSiteNews) — Three Republican members of the U.S. House of Representatives are seeking answers from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) about the lack of oversight of the in vitro fertilization (IVF) industry and the destruction of untold numbers of human embryos through IVF.
The Daily Signal obtained a copy of the April 30 letter to CDC director Mandy Cohen, signed by U.S. Reps. Josh Brecheen (R-OK), Andrew Clyde (R-GA), and Matthew Rosendale (R-MT).
Despite the Declaration of Independence’s affirmation of an unalienable, God-given right to life, the letter begins, “the IVF industry has long operated under the radar of lawmakers in the United States,” not even being required “to be transparent about their participation” in “eugenics or carelessly destroying human life.”
“This carelessness has earned the U.S. the title of the ‘Wild West’ of assisted reproductive technology.”
“Clinics are not required to disclose the total number of embryos they create, how many they store indefinitely, or how many they destroy and for what reasons,” the lawmakers write. “Shockingly, clinics are not even required to disclose statistics on their application of genetic screening, which more than 70% of fertility clinics utilize for sex-selection.”
“Advancing technology raises further concerns that clinics will use genetic screening to choose the ‘best’ embryos based on traits like eye or hair color, complexion, or potential height. In the U.S., this technology is already used to select or discard embryos based on eye color,” they continue.
With those issues in mind, the congressmen called on Cohen to answer a series of questions by the end of the month, asking to know if the CDC keeps track of how many embryos IVF are created annually, how many of them are destroyed annually, how many are currently in storage and for how long, and how many are screened for “sex-selection, genetic abnormalities, or physical attributes such as eye, skin, or hair color,” and how many are destroyed afterward.
The letter also requests the CDC’s recommendations about the number of embryos created per cycle, the treatment and destruction of “excesses,” and the use of genetic screening, as well as whether the agency has any “moral or ethical concerns” about the practices.
“The American people must be made fully aware of how many embryos the IVF industry destroys and the decisions behind this destruction of human life,” Brecheen told the Signal. “Congress cannot continue to allow clinics to conceal their activities from the public, and that is why we are demanding answers.”
IVF’s profile as a national issue rose earlier this year when the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos are children under the law and that their accidental destruction can be grounds for wrongful death lawsuits.
But Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall soon confirmed he had no intention of prosecuting IVF facilities based on the ruling, and the state quickly enacted a new law protecting the industry after national media pressure.
In March, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) under the Biden administration announced it would “offer IVF benefits to qualifying Veterans regardless of marital status” and allow them to use donor sperm, eggs, or embryos, a reversal of old rules that limited IVF to married service members whose military service led to a health condition making them infertile but still capable of producing their own eggs or sperm. Brecheen and Rosendale previously joined Reps. Bob Good (R-VA) and Mary Miller (R-IL) in a letter challenging the VA on the policy change.
But the IVF process is fraught with grave threats to the sanctity of life, as it entails the conscious creation of scores of “excess” embryonic human children only to be killed and human lives being treated like commodities to be bartered over. It has been estimated that more than a million embryos are frozen in storage in the United States following IVF, and that as many as 93% of all embryos created through IVF are eventually destroyed.
A 2019 NBC News profile of Florida IVF practitioner Craig Sweet acknowledged that his practice has discarded or abandoned approximately a third of the embryos it places in cold storage.
Brecheen, Clyde, Good, Miller, and Rosendale represent an exception in the national GOP. Many Republicans, including former President Donald Trump and the National Republican Senatorial Committee, have rushed to declare their support for IVF, fearing the political ramifications of being branded as opposing the practice.
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