More GOP party platforms include anti-IVF language. Is surrogacy next?

Idaho state representative Brooke Green used IVF and later surrogacy to have her two children, work made possible by a bipartisan surrogacy bill she co-sponsored in 2023. Now Republican parties in Idaho, Texas, Missouri, North Carolina and Oklahoma have added platform language opposing IVF or embryo destruction, and Texas's 2026 platform explicitly calls IVF and commercial surrogacy 'destructive practices' to be curtailed.

At least 17 states saw 36 fetal-personhood bills introduced this year, according to the Guttmacher Institute, though opponents have defeated most by pointing out they would jeopardize IVF access, which polls broadly popular. Congressional Republicans have separately blocked legislation that would protect IVF directly, even as President Trump has floated lowering its cost without taking concrete action.

Advocates trace the opposition partly to IVF's use by same-sex couples and to concerns linking surrogacy to immigration and 'birth tourism.' Green expects surrogacy restrictions to be the next target in Idaho's 2027 legislative session.

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