What to Know Ahead of the White House Executive Order on IVF

In the coming weeks, RESOLVE anticipates that the White House will make its policy recommendations in response to the executive order (EO) for IVF access. Following an incredibly inspiring and impactful National Infertility Awareness Week®, it’s crucial that we continue to amplify our voices and keep our issues at the forefront.

Background on the Executive Order

Let’s rewind to February 18, 2025, when the White House released an Executive Order (EO) on In Vitro Fertilization (IVF). The EO mandates that within 90 days, policy recommendations would be submitted to the President to safeguard IVF access and significantly reduce out-of-pocket and health plan costs for IVF treatments. RESOLVE responded to this announcement by sharing our expertise in this area. As the 90th day approaches— possibly on May 19th, just one day before RESOLVE’s Federal Advocacy Day in collaboration with the American Society for Reproductive Medicine—we are preparing for what comes next.

RESOLVE’s Work in this Moment

Since the EO was released, RESOLVE has focused on gathering information, surveying our community, talking to our advocacy partners, and scenario planning with the goal of being prepared to respond to the Executive Order as the leading voice for the family building patient community in the U.S. As we have shared over and over with the media since February 18, we’ve been working on expanding access to care and IVF for more than 40 years – we know what good policy looks like, and we know how to expand access to care.

Many from the community have reached out asking if we have talked to the White House, some people even assumed that we were. As of the date of this blog post, we have not had direct contact with anyone at the White House or anyone working on the Executive Order. We have sent a letter to the Domestic Policy Council requesting a meeting and outlining policies and legislation that would bring immediate financial relief to people who need IVF to build their family, including veterans and our U.S. military servicemembers.

Drawing on our extensive experience advocating for this community and understanding the opposition’s stance on IVF, we have begun planning our response to the EO Policy Recommendations based on various potential scenarios that seem plausible to us. While the one certainty is we have no idea what the Policy Recommendations will be, we are confident we will be able to evaluate the recommendations against our guiding principles and determine the impact to our community – whatever the recommendations turn out to be.

Updates on the Survey

On April 7, 2025, RESOLVE launched a survey through our partners at Untold Research asking the patient community to evaluate various insurance benefit offerings. This type of survey was unprecedented for RESOLVE and our community took notice. In many ways it felt uncomfortable asking the questions we asked, but it was necessary.

Here’s why: Numerous well-funded groups and organizations oppose IVF as a medical treatment and family building method, some with budgets ten times larger than RESOLVE’s and strong ties to Congress and the White House. They want to change how IVF is practiced which could make it less effective, or they want to talk about ways to “cure” infertility using treatments that are not based in science.

They want you to make hard choices such as having insurance coverage for IVF, but with too many strings attached that sacrifices your care, your choices, and your outcome. One respondent told us they felt like their “back was up against a wall with impossible choices in front of me.” That is exactly what could happen.

Our Guiding Principles

We will assess the Executive Order policy recommendations through a framework of our core guiding principles regarding patient access to IVF. Patients deserve policies that: (in alphabetical order)

• Acknowledge all family-building options
• Adopt an inclusive definition of infertility
• Align with current clinical guidelines and scientifically supported standards of care
• Ensure bodily autonomy, free from government intervention
• Honor the Doctor-Patient relationship
• Respect all the ways families are built and created

These principles currently guide RESOLVE’s response to both federal and state legislation. It also guided us through the process of creating the nation’s only model legislation for IVF insurance mandates and model benefits for employer sponsored insurance plans.

Please remember, we are not satisfied with the status quo. It’s never over until everyone has the access to the care they need to build their family.

What You Can Do Right Now

We’ve been the leading patient organization for 50 years and have seen so many threats to IVF, as well as opportunities to increase access to care over those years. We haven’t sat on the sidelines when those threats and opportunities have come up. We’ve sat at the tables, whether the table was in boardrooms, with Members of Congress, or in state legislatures around the country. And to be totally transparent, we don’t always talk about all the places we’ve been, but as a patient or someone in the family building community, you’ve benefited from RESOLVE’s advocacy work and the places we have been and the tables where we’ve brought your voice.

We may not be at the Executive Order table during this particular moment, but that doesn’t mean we’re sitting still. Our strength has always been in our preparation, our persistence, and our people. And that includes you.

• Stay Connected: Ensure you are signed up for our RESOLVE Advocacy Network to receive crucial emails and updates.
• Stay Informed: Follow us on social media (Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and LinkedIn) and share information from reliable sources about this Executive Order.
• Keep Talking to Us: We understand this is a time of uncertainty, but your voice helps shape what comes next. We want to keep the conversation open and hear from you about how this moment is impacting you. We invite you to reach out through our comment form if that helps you process this uncertain time. Your voice matters and we want to hear from you.
• Be Ready: Prepare to act when needed.

No matter what comes next, we will continue to lead with our guiding principles, keep this community informed, and prepare you to raise your voice when it matters most. For 50 years, it’s been YOU and YOUR VOICE that has made a difference. Don’t ever forget that.