Get Ready. IVF Confusion is Coming.

On February 18, 2025, President Trump signed the executive order “Expanding Access to In Vitro Fertilization,” setting off a firestorm of comments, criticisms, and confusion among pro-life and pro-choice people alike. “We want to make it easier for mothers and fathers to have babies, not harder, you know that…that includes supporting the availability of fertility treatments like IVF in every state in America,” Trump said on the campaign trail last spring. “I strongly support the availability of IVF for couples who are trying to have a precious, little, beautiful baby.”

It’s not hard to see why Americans overwhelmingly believe access to IVF is a good thing. I mean, Trump is right; IVF means that more couples can have more babies! What’s the problem with that?! So pro-choice people (and even some pro-life people) are incredibly confused why Trump’s Executive Order just 30 days into his presidency didn’t make us pop the champagne. 

By us, I mean Rebecca, Emily, and our awesome ERI Affiliate Groups who researched and brainstormed how to effectively respond to the bewildered looks we’ve been getting on college campuses. Rebecca and I co-wrote this article, but really the credit goes to our awesome Affiliate Group members. The pro-choice train of thought we all thought through together goes something like “Isn’t more babies exactly what pro-lifers want? But they don’t support IVF?! Oh, so it really IS just about controlling women’s bodies and sex lives after all…” Here’s what we found.

Estimated reading time: 16 minutes

Now What? Abortion Dialogue After a Trump Victory

Election night. After weeks of hearing from almost every major pollster that this election would be unprecedently close and maybe wouldn’t be called for days, it just…wasn’t. It wasn’t close at all. Harris supporters are reeling, and it’s probably no surprise to you that college campuses are a rough place to be right now. That’s why we turned to our ERI Affiliate Groups—local pro-life clubs, many on college campuses—to brainstorm: how should we pro-lifers be handling conversations with pro-choice people in the aftermath?

So yes, Rebecca Carlson and Emily Geiger co-wrote this article, but our incredibly thoughtful students deserve to be in the byline too. They’re out there every day, on the front lines engaging directly with thousands of pro-choice people, and this article came out of their experience and ideas.

Photo by The Now Time

Estimated reading time: 19 minutes

The Pro-Life Message I Wish I’d Heard in High School

I don’t know about you, but there was a time in my life when I was absolutely terrified to tell anyone that I was pro-life.

Let me back up.

I grew up Catholic, went to K-12 Catholic school, the whole nine-yards. I knew that I was supposed to be pro-life, and I was pro-life, but I had spent maybe five minutes of my entire life thinking deeply about abortion. So when I went off to college, I had absolutely no idea what I was getting myself into.

I went to St. Olaf College, where in the fall of 2016, the students staged a massive protest against our local pro-life pregnancy center. The pregnancy center was hosting their annual fundraising banquet in the ballrooms of our student union, and when the students found out, they lined the hallways waving signs, trying to stop community members from entering and raising money to provide free resources to pregnant and parenting families.

Yeah, it took me about two seconds to realize that publicly identifying as pro-life was social suicide.

Estimated reading time: 6 minutes

I’m pregnant: The hot takes and musings of a pregnant pro-life advocate

I’m pregnant.

Thank you for all the well wishes; my husband and I are indeed thrilled to be awaiting the birth of Baby Geiger in August. (In case you missed the byline, this is your favorite ERI gal Emily Geiger, formerly Emily Albrecht. I got married last November!)

Anyways, I’m thrilled about my pregnancy.

But what if I wasn’t thrilled?

In the days after two little pink lines on a stick announced that there is a tiny human growing inside my body, I couldn’t help but imagine what life would be like if I wasn’t pro-life; if I didn’t know what I do about pregnancy and abortion; if my life circumstances were different and more challenging.

Estimated reading time: 13 minutes

Compassion works. Bullhorns don’t.

As an officer of Titans for Life at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh (one of our wonderful Affiliate Groups across the country), Sally Windler knows ERI apologetics forward, backward, and inside out. Recently, on the way out of a pro-choice panel discussion on her college campus, Sally stumbled upon an all-too-common scene: two men with cameras strapped to their bodies, holding a giant image of a bloody, dismembered baby doll. A camera on a tripod nearby recorded the small crowd that had formed around the pair as they screamed Bible verses at the appalled students.

Unfortunately, this scene is all too familiar to the pro-life advocates we train. In fact, one of the most common questions we receive from sidewalk counselors is how to handle “abolitionist” activists who act like this (or worse). It is often the case that no matter what the more gracious pro-lifer says;, the abolitionist will often get argumentative or just refuse to talk to the advocate at all, making progress nearly impossible.

Yet, after only one conversation with Sally, these two abortion abolitionists abandoned their bullhorns and walked away!

So, how did she do it?

Estimated reading time: 8 minutes