President Trump has marketed himself as the pro-family president, catering favor with Christian families and conservatives who strongly supported him in his election. Yet his most recent announcement to expand IVF access to families through discounted treatments through pharmaceutical company EMD Serono or encouraging employer-covered IVF treatments has left some conservatives, particularly pro-life groups, more concerned. “In the Trump administration, we are going to make it easier for all couples to have babies, raise children, and start the families they have always dreamed about,” President Trump said of his plan. Moshe Margaretten, founder of Americans for IVF, called it a “huge leap forward in the fight to make fertility care affordable.”

IVF is a hotly debated topic amongst Christians. On the one side are families who have successfully used the treatments to expand their family and overcome infertility treatments. IVF opponents, however, point to unethical practices, such as creating far too many embryos for the highest chances of success. These excess embryos after successful implantation face three possible futures: being frozen until possible use in the future, which in some cases can be decades; being destroyed, which many pro-life advocates point at as the destruction of life; and being adopted out, which can also take decades.

Lila Rose, President and Founder of the pro-life group Live Action, blasted the move. “Trump encourages employers to add insurance coverage for IVF—enabling the commodification of children,” wrote Rose. “Babies won’t be healthier. IVF kids face higher risks of lifelong health issues, & the process itself discards countless embryos—real human lives—deemed ‘unfit’ Reverse this.” Ryan Anderson, president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, described the policy as “bad.” “The Trump administration’s IVF policy unveiled on Thursday is perhaps the least bad that we could have hoped for … but least bad is still bad.”

National Review discussed the moral stakes of the IVF debate, noting “Annually, the abortion industry claims about 985,000 embryonic and fetal lives. IVF leads to the creation and death of between 1.5 million and 1.8 million more embryos.” Yet the motives of those who seek IVF are not very similar to those who seek abortions, with those seeking IVF having a strong desire to have a family. “The children who result from IVF are beloved members of their family. But the process of IVF naturally leads to embryo destruction,” said NR of the conundrum. “Given the moral stakes, the Trump administration shouldn’t be actively encouraging more of it.”