Republicans claim to support IVF. A legal expert says their platform implies otherwise.

In the last few months, Republicans, including former President Donald Trump, have stopped mentioning a potential national abortion ban, claiming to support states’ rights to legislate on abortion and in vitro fertilization. Experts say, however, that the Republican National Committee’s own platform points to something completely different and uses the U.S. Constitution as a cover. 

Released on July 7, the GOP platform is a 16-page outline of the party’s policy positions and goals. It highlights Republicans’ support for the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, which guarantees all Americans equality under the law and the right to due process.

Mary Ziegler, a professor at the University of California Davis School of Law, said: “The anti-abortion movement argued that the word ‘person’ in the 14th Amendment applied the moment an egg was fertilized. And then they further argued that that meant liberal laws on things like abortion and IVF were in fact unconstitutional. … So the GOP platform is basically the nod to personhood. It’s very clear to people in the know. This is a goal that the anti-abortion movement has been pursuing for decades.”

The GOP platform says: “We proudly stand for families and Life. We believe that the 14th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States guarantees that no person can be denied Life or Liberty without Due Process, and that the States are, therefore, free to pass Laws protecting those rights.”

Ziegler said that if the 14th Amendment were interpreted to mean that fetuses and embryos have the full rights of American citizens, any laws that guarantee access to abortion, birth control, and IVF could be overridden, even those supported by a majority of voters. 

Ziegler said the Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade in 1973 had served as a backstop that blocked the enactment of fetal personhood laws. That changed when the court ruled in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization in June 2022 and reversed Roe. 

“People in the anti-abortion movement haven’t always thought it was realistic to get fetal personhood, so it hasn’t always been in the foreground policywise, but it’s always been the end goal,” Ziegler said. “And it’s for that reason that the Republican Party platform since the 1980s had a personhood amendment in it.”

Under a definition of personhood beginning at the moment of fertilization, abortion and in vitro fertilization could be interpreted as unconstitutional, leading to bans on both nationwide, even where the right to abortion is enshrined in a state’s Constitution. 

IVF was at the center of a February ruling by the Alabama Supreme Court that said that embryos created via the procedure should be considered children and that those who destroy them could be held liable for wrongful death. A month later, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey signed a bill into law protecting IVF providers and patients from legal liability. 

The same paragraph of the Republican platform that refers to the 14th Amendment says, “We will oppose Late Term Abortion, while supporting mothers and policies that advance Prenatal Care, access to Birth Control, and IVF (fertility treatments).”

“Assuming you’re interpreting personhood the way American abortion opponents do, either you can be for IVF or you can be for fetal personhood, but you can’t be for both, right? So either they’re lying about the IVF part or they’re lying about the fetal personhood part,” Ziegler said. 

Ziegler noted that  what  has stopped Republicans from including fetal personhood in their platform is “the fact that voters don’t want it.” 

“Folks who can run again know voters don’t want this, so they may try to do what Trump is doing now, which is basically kind of fudging and kicking the can down the road and promising to do stuff later … This is basically as simple as, is there a right to choose or no? This is like, can you constitutionally protect abortion rights in your state or no? Do voters get to decide or do federal judges? It’s pretty basic,” Ziegler said. 

According to a survey of American adults conducted in June by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, 62% of Americans support protecting access to IVF. A Pew Research Center poll in April found that 63% of Americans believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases.