“Fetal Personhood” is a Key Tactic of the Anti-Abortion Movement’s Strategy to Undermine IVF, Abortion, and Other Types of Reproductive Health Care  

Washington, DC – The Trump administration has quietly revised a federal grant program to help give rights and benefits to embryos, a move that is aligned with a key legal strategy of the anti-abortion movement. The strategy seeks to create rights for embryos and fetuses throughout federal and state laws and programs so that courts begin to recognize them as “persons” under the Constitution. The end goal of this strategy is to ban abortion nationwide and restrict access to certain types of fertility care, including IVF, and contraception.

The move came from the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Population Affairs, which revised its Embryo Adoption and Awareness grant to redefine frozen embryos created through IVF as “children,” providing another opening for anti-abortion activists to argue for “fetal personhood” in the courts.

“This revised grant language to call embryos ‘children’ may seem small, but it could have enormous consequences for abortion, IVF treatment, and birth control access for people nationwide,” said Gretchen Borchelt, vice president for reproductive rights and health equity at the National Women’s Law Center. “Defining frozen embryos as children gives anti-abortion extremists so-called ‘evidence’ that they could use to convince an extremist judge that embryos and fetuses deserve the same legal rights as people. This type of move must be taken seriously and understood for what it truly is: a threat to reproductive health care rights and access nationwide.”

The National Women’s Law Center is leading efforts to expose the anti-abortion movement’s “fetal personhood” strategy. Last year, NWLC partnered with Pregnancy Justice to conduct a poll of likely voters, which found that voters oppose giving legal rights to embryos and fetuses.

To speak with an expert about how this move contributes to broader efforts to undermine reproductive health care, please contact [email protected].

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