Mike Johnson strips military IVF coverage from defense bill - report [View all]
Source: The Guardian
Mon 8 Dec 2025 12.12 EST
Last modified on Mon 8 Dec 2025 13.10 EST
A huge defense policy bill, revealed by US lawmakers on Sunday, does not include a provision that would have provided broad healthcare coverage for in vitro fertilization (IVF) for active-duty members of the military, despite Donald Trump’s pledge to strengthen access to the procedure. Both the House and Senate previously approved the provision, which was added to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) as an amendment earlier this year.
But Mike Johnson, the speaker of the House and a diehard anti-abortion Republican, worked behind the scenes to strip the provision from the new version of the NDAA, MS NOW reported last week. Although IVF is extremely popular with the American public, abortion foes often oppose it on the grounds that it creates unused or discarded embryos, which they see as people.
Advocates for IVF, including Danielle Melfi, the CEO of Resolve: The National Infertility Association, have spoken out about the exclusion. “Failing to include IVF coverage in the NDAA is a dishonor to our servicemembers who make extraordinary sacrifices for our freedoms,” she said in a statement.
“There was bipartisan support for this coverage, and its exclusion fails to advance President Trump’s call to expand IVF access. Military families have waited far too long to access the full range of medical care needed to build their families.” Johnson did not immediately reply to a request for comment about the exclusion of the IVF provision. However, in a Sunday statement, Johnson praised the latest version of the NDAA extensively.
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/dec/08/military-ivf-coverage-defense-bill-mike-johnson
Of course he stripped it out. The RW religious loons said it from day one - they don't believe in IVF.
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