{"id":348915,"date":"2025-12-15T05:33:20","date_gmt":"2025-12-15T05:33:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/348915\/"},"modified":"2025-12-15T05:33:20","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T05:33:20","slug":"how-a-niche-catholic-approach-to-infertility-treatment-became-a-new-talking-point-for-maha-conservatives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/348915\/","title":{"rendered":"How a niche Catholic approach to infertility treatment became a new talking point for MAHA conservatives"},"content":{"rendered":"

Along the 2024 presidential campaign trail, Donald Trump pledged to make in vitro fertilization<\/a>, or IVF,<\/a> free \u2013 part of his party\u2019s wider push for a new American \u201cbaby boom<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

But in October 2025, when the administration revealed its IVF proposal<\/a>, many health care experts pointed out<\/a> that it falls short<\/a> of mandating insurance companies to cover the procedure.<\/p>\n

Since Trump returned to the White House, it has become clear just how fraught<\/a> IVF is for his base. Some conservative Christians oppose IVF<\/a> because it often involves destroying extra embryos<\/a> not implanted in the woman\u2019s uterus.<\/p>\n

According to Politico, anti-abortion groups lobbied against a requirement for employers to cover IVF<\/a>. Instead, some vouched for \u201crestorative reproductive medicine\u201d \u2013 a term that has been around for decades but has received much more attention<\/a>, especially from conservatives, in the past few months. <\/p>\n

Proponents of restorative reproductive medicine tend to present it as an alternative to IVF<\/a>: a different way of treating infertility, focused on treating underlying causes. But the approach is controversial, and some practitioners closely link their treatments to Catholic teachings.<\/p>\n

As a scholar of religion<\/a>, I study U.S. Catholics\u2019 varied perspectives on infertility, seeking to understand how religious beliefs and practices influence physicians\u2019 and patients\u2019 choices. Their perspectives help provide a more nuanced understanding of Christianity\u2019s role in the U.S. reproductive and political landscape.<\/p>\n

Defining restorative reproductive medicine<\/p>\n

Clinics that advertise themselves as offering restorative reproductive medicine try to diagnose underlying issues<\/a> that could make conception difficult, like endometriosis<\/a>. Typically, a patient and provider will closely monitor the patient\u2019s menstrual cycle to identify potential abnormalities. Interventions include hormone therapies, medications, supplements, surgeries and lifestyle changes. <\/p>\n

\"An<\/a><\/p>\n

Some approaches to treating infertility focus on analyzing the patient\u2019s menstrual cycle.
\n Iana Pronicheva\/iStock via Getty Images Plus<\/a><\/p>\n

Much of the approach resembles the initial testing used to evaluate patients<\/a> in mainstream reproductive endocrinology and infertility clinics. However, restorative reproductive medicine clinics do not typically offer IVF or other assisted reproductive technologies.<\/p>\n

Depending on who you ask, proponents are not necessarily opposed to IVF<\/a>; they see their treatments as another option to explore. Some clinicians, however, closely link their treatment offerings to their religious commitments<\/a> and opposition to abortion. <\/p>\n

Restorative reproductive medicine has prompted criticism from professional medical organizations. The American Society for Reproductive Medicine issued a statement<\/a> in May 2025 calling it a \u201crebranding\u201d of standard infertility treatment, with \u201cideologically driven restrictions that could limit patient care.\u201d The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists issued a brief warning<\/a> that it is a \u201cnonmedical approach\u201d that threatens to impede access to IVF. <\/p>\n

These critics are concerned that the focus on lifestyle changes and surgery may not address patients\u2019 difficulties conceiving<\/a>, while putting them through other unsuccessful treatments. <\/p>\n

Church teachings<\/p>\n

Today, restorative reproductive medicine<\/a> is often described as gaining steam<\/a> with conservative Christians and the \u201cMake America Healthy Again,\u201d or MAHA, movement<\/a>. Its roots, though, are decades old, and largely Catholic. <\/p>\n

Part of the Catholic Church\u2019s objection to IVF<\/a> stems from a concern that unused embryos are often discarded and destroyed<\/a>. The church\u2019s position is that all embryos ought to be treated with the same respect afforded a person \u2013 one of the key reasons its teachings oppose abortion.<\/p>\n

Disapproval of IVF also stems from the church\u2019s official teachings on marriage. According to this teaching, marriage has two chief ends, which it calls \u201cprocreation and union\u201d: Typically, procreation is understood to mean having children, while union involves physical, emotional and spiritual intimacy. In this understanding, sexual intercourse should preserve what the church calls an \u201cinseparable connection\u201d<\/a> between these two meanings.<\/p>\n

The Catholic Church opposes artificial contraception<\/a> because its goal is to block procreation. Instead, Catholics are encouraged to use \u201cNatural Family Planning\u201d \u2013 tracking a woman\u2019s cycle so that couples can choose to abstain from sex during fertile periods. Similarly, it opposes artificial insemination and IVF because, by moving fertilization out of the body and into the lab, the process separates procreation from the act of sexual intercourse. <\/p>\n

Survey data suggests most U.S. Catholics do not agree<\/a> with these official stances<\/a>, nor do they follow them. <\/p>\n

Catholic doctors who do agree with official church teachings, however, have played a key role in developing infertility treatments that align with them<\/a>. One of the most influential is Dr. Thomas W. Hilgers<\/a>, who co-developed a \u201cNatural Family Planning\u201d method called the Creighton Model<\/a>. In the early 1990s, he also developed NaProTechnology<\/a>, an approach that seeks to identify fertility issues using cycle tracking, and then treat them with various medical and surgical interventions.<\/p>\n

The NaProTechnology approach could be said to fall under the umbrella of restorative reproductive medicine, but it has mostly been used by Catholic reproductive health clinics<\/a> and hospitals<\/a>. Catholic physicians\u2019 networks<\/a> promote it, as do parishes<\/a> and dioceses<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Navigating infertility<\/p>\n

For Catholics who share the church\u2019s official perspective on IVF, NaProTechnology and the clinics offering it are often a welcome alternative. Several of the Catholic women I interviewed<\/a> as part of my academic research had also been to mainstream fertility clinics, but they felt that those providers did not offer much apart from IVF. <\/p>\n

By contrast, the clinics offering NaProTechnology were often cheaper, in part because they do not offer IVF. They were also easier to navigate, since clinicians shared these patients\u2019 religious views. Many felt that the providers were able to spend more time with them, helped them learn about their bodies, and were committed to understanding underlying issues beyond infertility.<\/p>\n

However, others found clinics offering NaProTechnology to be lacking, often because clinicians weren\u2019t up front about its limitations, especially when it comes to male infertility<\/a>. Some patients felt that clinicians weren\u2019t willing to admit drawbacks, for fear it would encourage couples to try IVF.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

Infertility treatments are a confusing landscape for many women.
\n Catherine McQueen\/Moment via Getty Images<\/a><\/p>\n

Most Catholics dealing with infertility<\/a>, however, find themselves in mainstream clinical settings that offer IVF. Women I interviewed who opted for IVF were frank in their critiques of church teachings<\/a> and their skepticism of Catholic clinics. Many took issue with the underlying assumption that the people who ought to be procreating are heterosexual, married couples and that conception is usually possible without the help of IVF.<\/p>\n

However, many of these women were also dissatisfied with the approach that mainstream clinics take. Some felt that those clinics were focused on profit \u2013 a concern shared by some scholars<\/a> scrutinizing<\/a> the fertility industry<\/a>. Some women also felt pressured to genetically test their embryos for chromosomal abnormalities and to discard unused embryos, even after explaining to staff that destroying them would be out of step with their moral commitments.<\/p>\n

Understanding patient experiences in either kind of clinic helps underscore the difficulties many people face navigating infertility \u2013 and the stakes of policy reform. <\/p>\n

The Trump administration\u2019s plan largely maintains the status quo for IVF access<\/a> while making more room for alternative treatments. But it intensifies questions about how the government responds to religious beliefs about reproductive health care, especially disagreements about the moral status of embryos. For now, patients and providers will continue to navigate a fractured landscape.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Along the 2024 presidential campaign trail, Donald Trump pledged to make in vitro fertilization, or IVF, free \u2013…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":348916,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[64,63,137,500],"class_list":{"0":"post-348915","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-healthcare"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348915","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=348915"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348915\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/348916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=348915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=348915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=348915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}