Trump Says He’s the Fertilization President, Then Gutted IVF Safety Oversight
Behind the PR, he dismantled the CDC team that protected patients, mothers, and families.
“We were finally ready to try again,” said Maria, a 37-year-old teacher in Georgia. “Then I read the CDC isn’t tracking IVF anymore. That was the only data I trusted. Now I don’t even know if our clinic is safe.”
Maria’s story is one of thousands, but it’s also a warning. Fertility care in the U.S. just got more dangerous, and the person responsible is the same one calling himself the "Fertilization President."
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Trump’s IVF Two-Face
In a March speech celebrating Women's History Month, Donald Trump praised in vitro fertilization (IVF) as a “miracle” and declared himself “the fertilization president.” He framed his support as part of a broader commitment to women’s health:
“We’re going to have tremendous, tremendous goodies in the bag for women, too, the women between the fertilization and all of the other things that we’re talking about. It’s going to be, it’s going to be great.”
“I’m still very proud of it, I don’t care. I’ll be known as the fertilization president, that’s not bad. I’ve been called much worse. Actually, I like it, right? I like it.”
But what were those “goodies”? In practice, it was just one thing: a hollow executive order, followed by the quiet dismantling of the only federal team protecting IVF patients.
What the Executive Order Claims
The order states:
“It is the policy of my Administration to ensure reliable access to IVF treatment, including by easing unnecessary statutory or regulatory burdens to make IVF treatment drastically more affordable.”
It also directs a 90-day review period for developing policy recommendations.
However, while the administration issued high-minded goals, its next move told a very different story.
Behind the Curtain: Oversight Eliminated
Just days after the executive order was signed, the Trump administration quietly eliminated the CDC’s Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) Surveillance Team—the only federal program dedicated to tracking IVF outcomes and ensuring clinic safety.
This team provided:
Success rates by age and treatment type
Reports on complications like multiple births and ovarian overstimulation
Safety benchmarks for over 400 clinics nationwide
Its dissolution leaves patients in the dark about where it’s safe—or unsafe—to pursue treatment.
The Pattern: Performative Promises, Quiet Sabotage
This is part of a familiar playbook:
Praise the cause, kill the infrastructure
Claim to protect families, deregulate the industry
Invoke science, undermine scientists
We've seen this before:
Slashing pandemic preparedness while claiming to fight COVID
Cutting veteran services while waving flags
Promoting “law and order” while defunding prevention programs
Now, fertility care is the latest casualty.
Who Gains & Who Pays
Who Benefits:
Private IVF Corporations: With oversight gone, clinics can upsell treatments, hide low success rates, and increase prices unchecked.
Anti-Regulation Ideologues: This furthers their goal of stripping public health protections in favor of the “free market.”
Trump’s Political Machine: He earns headlines for supporting families while handing deregulation wins to donors and claims to support women while reducing them to expendable breeding machines.
Who Suffers:
Families seeking IVF: No national data means less cost, quality, or safety transparency.
Women undergoing treatment: They bear the physical risks, now with fewer safeguards.
LGBTQ+ and single parents: Disproportionately reliant on ART, they face more significant barriers and discrimination without oversight.
Doctors and scientists: Losing this team fractures decades of research and medical consistency.
We’ve reported previously on the Administration’s impact on public health agencies here:
Why This Affects Everyone
Even if you’re not planning to use IVF, this matters.
Medical Risk: With no data checks, we risk a return to unsafe practices, like high multiple-birth rates and inflated success claims. Women’s health will be compromised unnecessarily.
Skyrocketing Costs: Clinics can push unnecessary procedures and drive up prices without accountability.
Legal Vulnerability: Data is the backbone of legal and legislative defense. Without it, future IVF access is easier to restrict.
Weakening Public Health: This is one more blow to public health infrastructure, from vaccines to reproductive care.
Experts Are Sounding the Alarm
Barbara Collura, head of RESOLVE: The National Infertility Association, called the move a “significant setback for families,” especially given the administration’s IVF messaging.
A leading IVF physician, Dr. Brian Levine, warned that this will mean “less accountability and more uncertainty” nationwide.
So far, few lawmakers have responded. The silence is telling.
What You Can Do
This isn’t just about IVF. It’s about truth, science, and the gap between slogans and policy.
Here’s how to fight back:
Share this story to raise awareness
Contact your representatives and demand the reinstatement of the CDC ART team
Support RESOLVE and similar orgs protecting access and accountability in fertility care
We’ve reported previously about how lawmakers could support women’s and infant health.
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Final Thought
Trump didn’t protect IVF. He sabotaged it.
He didn’t stand with families; he empowered corporations.
And he didn’t build transparency—he dismantled the only team delivering it.
Don’t be fooled by the photo ops. Fertility deserves facts, not PR stunts.
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Bibliography:
Rowe, Ashley. "Trump touts efforts to expand IVF access, dubs himself the ‘fertilization president’." WRAL, March 27, 2025.
Sherman, Carter. "The anti-women 'fertilization president' who wants to have it both ways." The Guardian, March 29, 2025.
Vagianos, Alanna. "Trump Admin Slashes CDC Division Studying IVF, Maternal Health: ‘Won’t See The Effects Until It’s Too Late’." HuffPost, April 4, 2025.
Stephens, Richard. "US government cuts key fertility treatment monitoring team." Progress Educational Trust, April 7, 2025.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). "ART Surveillance." CDC, December 10, 2024.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). "ART Success Rates." CDC, February 7, 2025.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). "National ART Surveillance System." CDC, December 10, 2024.
White House. "Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Expands Access to In Vitro Fertilization (IVF)." WhiteHouse.gov, February 18, 2025.
People Staff. "Donald Trump Nicknames Himself the 'Fertilization President' at Women's History Month Event." People, March 27, 2025.
Of course he did. Vile creature that he is.
He says all sorts of things - anyone who believes him on any point these days should be viewed as having questionable judgement themselves.
The wealthy want to control who is born.