Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill Sunday that requires major health insurance companies to cover in vitro fertilization. This is a victory for reproductive health advocates amid national concerns about the future of access to fertility treatment.
The bill also expands medical benefits to LGBTQ+ families who want children and changes the definition of infertility for insurance purposes to include “the inability to reproduce as an individual or with a partner without medical intervention.” .
“California is a state that prides itself on reproductive freedom, and that includes increasing access to fertility services to help people who want to start families,” Newsom said in a statement Sunday. said. “As Republicans across the country call themselves the 'party of families' and continue to disenfranchise and block access to IVF, we are committed to helping all Californians make choices about the families they want. I'm proud of it.”
California's new law comes as conservative groups increasingly oppose in vitro fertilization, citing ethical and religious concerns about the use of embryos and when life actually begins.
Trump recently vowed to pay for in vitro fertilization nationwide if elected president in November, an announcement that reproductive rights activists quickly criticized as they seek to gain support in a close election. It raises questions and points to his unsuccessful history with abortion.
In vitro fertilization is a common procedure for people facing infertility in which eggs are collected from the ovaries, fertilized with sperm in a laboratory, and implanted into the uterus.
During the IVF process, some embryos may not survive and can be discarded if they are no longer needed. That prompted groups such as the California Family Council, a conservative Christian group, to oppose SB 729, which was signed into law Sunday, arguing that “human life begins at conception.”
California currently does not require insurance companies to cover IVF. The procedure costs Californians an average of $24,000 out of pocket and can require multiple rounds to be successful, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Newsom, a longtime reproductive rights advocate, has faced opposition from health insurance companies, the California Chamber of Commerce and his own Treasury Department, citing cost concerns as the state faces a multibillion-dollar budget deficit. Nevertheless, he signed the bill. A recent financial analysis of the bill projects it would cost the state at least $20 million in public employee insurance premiums in the first two years alone.
Reproductive rights advocates warn that IVF is in jeopardy after the Supreme Court ended federal guarantees on abortion access in 2022, leaving it up to states. He credited President Trump with helping appoint the conservative-majority judges who made the decision.
President Trump has since said that if elected, he would not impose a nationwide abortion ban and would support in vitro fertilization, but an Alabama court ruled that frozen embryos are considered “children” and their destruction constitutes wrongful death. There remains a sense of disbelief in the wake of the ruling. More than a dozen states The “Fetal Personality” Protection Act was introduced.
The bill was amended through the legislative process to address several cost concerns, and religious employers are exempt from the law.
