Op-Ed by The Family Foundation and published in Kentucky Today.
Them Before Us, an organization that advocates for children’s rights, recently released the first-ever Children’s Rights Scorecard. This scorecard ranks states on how well they protect the rights of children, according to four categories. Overall, the nation is in a bad spot. Most states have a B- or lower, with several states having Fs. Kentucky was one of only four states with a B. Kentucky did well in two of the four categories used to rank states—parentage and surrogacy. However, there was one category in which Kentucky graded extremely poorly—in vitro fertilization (IVF).
IVF has recently been in the news when a Louisville woman named Jessica Kalb challenged Kentucky’s pro-life law, alleging that it might have implications for her access to IVF. While many discussed the judge’s ruling and his claim that law’s definition of an unborn human is “unconstitutionally vague,” few, if any, talked about the issue that prompted the case—IVF.
The ethics of IVF are complicated, and it isn’t my intention to address every aspect of IVF here. Instead, I want to address one of the most problematic aspects of the current IVF industry—the disposal of embryos.
IVF involves taking sperm from the father and eggs from the mother and combining them in a Petri dish to form an embryo. Because of a low success rate, oftentimes numerous eggs are taken from the mother and fertilized—creating numerous embryos. Embryos are graded according to their likelihood of resulting in a healthy pregnancy. They are categorized as viable and non-viable. Then, one or more viable embryos are placed inside the mother.
Non-viable embryos are typically disposed as medical waste. Some are given a “compassionate transfer,” where the embryo is transferred into the mother despite a high likelihood for a miscarriage. The rest are donated for medical research.
Pro-lifers already affirm that all embryos, viable and non-viable, are human persons. Most embryos created through IVF are non-viable and discarded as medical waste. Most viable embryos that aren’t used are frozen. However, once families have the number of kids they want, they usually dispose of the remaining viable embryos. This means the vast majority of embryos created through IVF are discarded.
A 2024 study on the total number of embryos lost due to IVF in the U.S. from 1995 to 2020 from the World Journal of Biology Pharmacy and Health Science concluded that “if life begins at conception, IVF is one of the leading causes of death in the US.” To put this into perspective, more babies are killed through IVF than abortion. Despite this, 78% of people who identify as pro-life support IVF.
This concerning reality shows a glaring inconsistency in the pro-life movement. Advocates for life rightfully oppose abortion because it is the intentional killing of an unborn child, but most of them also support IVF, which kills more children.
There are many reasons why pro-lifers support IVF. Some are ignorant of the procedure. A study from the National Library of Medicine showed that only 42% of the people surveyed had an adequate knowledge of what the procedure entailed. Others are in favor of the procedure, but oppose destroying embryos. A study found that only 49% of the people surveyed thought disposing of frozen embryos was morally acceptable.
Whatever the reason may be for supporting IVF, pro-lifers need to start addressing the issue in all of its complexity. Alabama’s Supreme Court rightly ruled that frozen embryos through IVF are children and fall under the state’s wrongful death statute in LePage v. Center for Reproductive Medicine, P.C in 2024. Since then, seven states, including Alabama, have passed laws giving full immunity to patients, doctors, and clinics for destroying or damaging embryos during IVF. No state has responded by limiting IVF in any way.
The Children’s Rights Scorecard reveals an issue Kentucky’s pro-life movement can no longer ignore. If we’re going to call ourselves pro-life, then we must advocate for policies that protect children from the moment of conception, regardless of the manner of conception. All children have dignity, whether they were conceived naturally or in a laboratory, and our laws should reflect that reality by giving every image bearer the full protection of the law.