The Most Reverend Michael F. Burbidge, Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Arlington, Virginia, issued a pastoral letter on Wednesday entitled, “The Christian Family, In Vitro Fertilization, and Heroic Witness to True Love.” In the letter, he called on U.S. lawmakers not to “mandate” the practice of in vitro fertilization (IVF).
“Saint Thomas Aquinas described love as willing the good of the other,” he wrote, “and it is this sort of love which the Church proclaims as the love necessary for those who wish to be happy now and forever. Authentic love means making a total gift of self, for the true good of one another, and it is for this reason that love means the rejection of any action that would degrade, instrumentalize, or otherwise wrong another.”
Bishop Burbidge’s letter comes on the heels of the second inauguration of President Donald Trump, who said in October 2024 during his campaign, “We really are the party for IVF. We want fertilization, and it’s all the way, and the Democrats tried to attack us on it, and we’re out there on IVF even more than them. So we’re totally in favor.” For their part, Democratic lawmakers have already attempted to create a “right” to IVF.
While acknowledging that fertility and IVF are “incredibly sensitive topics” that require “compassion” and “understanding,” Bishop Burbidge explained that any good intentions one might have to enter into the practice of IVF, “is contrary to justice and remains replete with moral difficulties.” The most “obvious moral difficulty of IVF,” he wrote, is that “despite giving rise to new life it also destroys many others…”
Bishop Burbidge, who was previously the chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) Committee on Pro-Life Activities, went on to suggest roles that he believes the government should and should not take on when it comes to IVF.
“In recent months, some in the public square have advocated a greater role of government in providing IVF as an entitlement, either by means of direct funding or by compelling health insurance companies to do so. In a misguided attempt to respond to challenges surrounding marriage, family formation, falling birth rates, and fertility, elected officials are rushing to support an IVF industry that kills or freezes hundreds of thousands of embryonic children every year and facilitates the exploitative practice of surrogacy,” he said. “Some even claim that mandating or promoting IVF is pro-life because the process may produce children, but this ignores the moral injustices at the core of the IVF process and the fatal consequences for so many of the embryonic children brought about through that process.”
He continued, “A federal IVF entitlement or mandate would represent, moreover, an illegitimate handing over to Caesar the things of God…” and “would involve serious injustices, and over time would invite abuse, domination, and even subjugation to the raw power of the state.”
Any law mandating IVF, he said, “would insert the state into the very heart of the home and gradually bring about the false sense that the state and those holding power, now effectively the sponsors of human persons even prior to conception, can and should direct the lives of those their power has brought about.” This would represent a threat to the “future liberty of a free people.”
Bishop Burbidge went on to say that the federal government can play a “good” and “positive” role. “Elected officials should consider concrete ways to encourage earlier marriage and family formation, establish programs to address direct pregnancy and childbirth-related expenses that may act as a barrier to the growth of families, and expand coverage for life-affirming and restorative fertility care.”
Though he showed support for restorative fertility care, which seeks to find the cause of infertility and bring healing rather than jump to the Band-Aid of IVF, Bishop Burbidge stopped short of calling for an end to the practice of IVF.
Instead, he called on lawmakers “to ensure that IVF facilities adopt basic health and safety regulations that would minimize the harms associated with their industry. He advised that they “consider mandating straightforward informed consent disclosures for prospective parents that clearly convey the ethical and moral consequences of the IVF process and effective life-affirming alternatives.”
The bishop also provided resources for fertility care at the conclusion of his letter.
Tell President Trump, RFK, Jr., Elon, and Vivek:
Stop killing America’s future. Defund Planned Parenthood NOW!
