CDC's IVF team gutted even as Trump calls himself the 'fertilization president'
A team that tracked how well in vitro fertilization worked across the U.S. was abruptly cut Tuesday as part of the sweeping layoffs at the Department of Health and Human Services.
A team that tracked how well in vitro fertilization worked across the U.S. was abruptly cut Tuesday as part of the sweeping layoffs at the Department of Health and Human Services.
The elimination of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Assisted Reproductive Technology Surveillance team — a group of six epidemiologists, data analysts and researchers — shocked public health experts and IVF advocates who said they had felt encouraged by President Donald Trump’s comments supporting access to the infertility treatment.
Just last week, Trump declared himself “the fertilization president” while touting efforts to expand IVF.
“Fertilization,” Trump said at a White House event on March 26 to commemorate Women’s History Month. “I’m still very proud of it, I don’t care. I’ll be known as the fertilization president and that’s OK.”
But Barbara Collura, the president and CEO of RESOLVE: The National Infertility Association, a nonprofit group for reproductive health, said one of Trump’s best assets to address IVF was now gone.
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