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Get Ready. IVF Confusion is Coming.

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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
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Is It Okay to Find Edge Cases Challenging?

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Tell me if this story sounds familiar— you’re going about your day, maybe tapping through your friends’ Instagram stories or scrolling through funny cat videos on TikTok, when you see a headline in bold print:

“PRO-LIFE LAW CAUSES HORRIFIC CHAIN OF EVENTS”

You’re strongly pro-life. You’ve taken the Equipped for Life Course, led a pro-life student or church group, or even currently work full time for an anti-abortion organization. But, you read the details, and for at least a moment, everything you believe starts to tilt. You’re no longer sure if you’re on the right side of this issue. 

Estimated reading time: 4 minutes
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Your Dialogue Partner Might Know Less than You Expect

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Want to hear one of the more unbelievable things I’ve ever heard at an outreach?

No, it has nothing to do with a super-extremist pro-choice position or some high-octane philosophical argument. It wasn’t even an “open mouth, insert foot” moment by another pro-life activist. Instead, it was a display of painful, low-level ignorance.

Estimated reading time: 9 minutes
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Now What? Abortion Dialogue After a Trump Victory

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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
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Why Didn’t I Endorse Trump In My Last Article?

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Last week, I wrote an article about the election (always a fraught thing to do). I argued that who pro-lifers should vote for is an important question and that not all answers are equally correct, but I also argued that how we think of and treat fellow pro-lifers who vote differently from us is even more important.

The responses I got were pretty much exactly what I expected. Some people loved the article, some people engaged thoughtfully with particular claims it made, and some people I lost completely as soon as I said that it’s possible to both be pro-life and vote for Harris.

If that’s you, I have immense empathy with where you’re coming from. I think Harris is very, very terrible—both her personal character and her policies, especially her policy goals on abortion, which are to make it federally illegal for states to impose restrictions on abortion at any time, for any reason. If she’s elected and she gets the congressional support she needs to succeed at passing that law, it will cost the lives of thousands and thousands of babies, including babies late enough in pregnancy that they can certainly feel pain and will die in agony. I’m not voting for Harris, and I think voting for Harris is the wrong choice.

Estimated reading time: 9 minutes