House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has been fighting behind the scenes to rip out a provision of the National Defense Authorization Act that guarantees troops access to in vitro fertilization coverage, reported MS NOW on Wednesday.
Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), who has been involved in the negotiations on the military funding re-authorization, sounded the alarm on the issue.
“After this provision was championed in bipartisan negotiations in both chambers of Congress, it is repugnant that Speaker Mike Johnson is single-handedly working behind closed doors — and against the President’s promise — to rip this provision away from our heroes and their families,” said Duckworth, who relied on IVF to have two children after a double amputation from her military service reduced her natural fertility. “Given how much we already ask them to sacrifice, how dare Mike Johnson demand that they sacrifice their dreams of having a family.”
"The provision Johnson is targeting would mandate that TRICARE, the insurance plan for service members and their families, cover IVF services for all enrollees. Currently, TRICARE only covers fertility services for military members whose infertility was caused by 'a serious or severe illness or injury while on active duty,'" said the report. "But that was set to change in this year’s NDAA, which lawmakers in the House and Senate expect to release this week after intense negotiations."
Johnson reportedly opposes this expansion of IVF coverage in TRICARE because of his anti-abortion beliefs. IVF has been targeted by some right-wing religious activists because most of the embryos generated in the process must ultimately be discarded as medical waste.
However, in recent years, Republicans have been on the defensive over backlash from the public to IVF restrictions, largely precipitated by outrage from a 2024 Alabama Supreme Court ruling that frozen embryos used in IVF are legally children. The Trump administration itself has pledged to protect access to IVF treatments, but Duckworth has condemned the administration's actions as lip service without any real protections.