For many women, the biological pull toward motherhood is the most powerful and overwhelming force they’ve ever experienced. When that urge goes unanswered due to persistent infertility, the growing ache of unfulfilled desire can be devastating. As an obstetrician and gynecologist, it’s a pain I’ve witnessed many times.
Before I retired, I had a daily front row seat to the beauty of human life from the moment of conception. I know the truth: that every heartbeat matters. Every life, no matter how small, is a patient worth fighting for. But to be complete, the conversation about the sanctity of life must also include those who long for children and face the heartbreak of infertility.
Infertility is deeply personal. It touches couples in every community, and often in silence. It’s crushing when it happens to you. Yet, there is hope for couples fruitlessly longing to be parents, and that hope can be found in a pro-life approach that honors life, uplifts families, and opens new paths to parenthood.
A Culture That Celebrates Life Encourages Family
At its core, the pro-life movement recognizes the value of every single human life. We usually focus on the preborn in the womb, but the pro-life mindset also values the lives of children created through fertility treatments and honors the hearts of parents longing to welcome a child into their families. When we create policies that support personhood and a culture that protects life from the very beginning, we also build a society where couples who struggle with infertility can find real encouragement and support.
A pro-life perspective doesn’t shy away from science. In fact, it embraces it. Our understanding of human development confirms what Scripture teaches, that life begins at conception. From a medical standpoint, this means embryos are not potential people, but people with potential. If we honor this truth as a society, we open the door to thoughtful policies like embryo adoption, which would protect the dignity of embryos created through IVF and give hopeful couples a chance to experience pregnancy, childbirth, and parenthood.
Infertility Deserves Real Solutions, Not Shortcuts
Too often, the focus of infertility treatment has been on results at any cost, rather than on healing. A pro-life approach challenges us to go deeper, to look not only at what we can do with technology, but what we should do out of respect for human life. That includes advocating for ethical fertility care that seeks to uncover and treat the underlying causes of infertility: hormonal imbalances, endometriosis, or other health issues that could be addressed with the right medical attention.
There are exciting developments in restorative reproductive medicine that align with a pro-life ethic and respect the body’s design. These approaches don’t treat fertility as a problem to bypass but rather as a gift to be restored. This philosophy can bring real, long-term hope to couples and individuals who wish to conceive naturally.
Adoption: A Living Witness of Love and Sacrifice
Pro-life values shine brightest when we support life at every stage and in every circumstance. That’s why adoption is such a powerful part of the pro-life conversation. As more lives are saved and abortion rates fall, more children may become available for adoption. When we embrace the full dignity of life and celebrate the love that permeates the adoption story, families facing infertility can see adoption not as a last resort but as a beautiful path to parenthood.
Through domestic adoption, international adoption, or embryo adoption, the pro-life movement has an opportunity to champion policies that make adoption more accessible and accepted. At the same time, we must care for biological parents, ensuring they are treated with compassion and dignity every step of the way.
Hope That Honors Life
Infertility is a painful road, but it’s not a hopeless one. Pro-life policy, rooted in science, compassion, and truth, has the power to bring renewed hope to those who long to be parents. We believe every life matters, from the embryo in a lab or the child in foster care to the mother who chooses adoption or the couple struggling to conceive.
If you or someone you love is walking through infertility, know that there are ethical, life-affirming paths to parenthood. And if you want to be part of a movement that defends life while supporting families, I invite you to visit ProLifeDoc.org. You’ll find resources, videos, and Human Life: A Curriculum, a powerful tool for equipping others with the medical truth about life, fertility, and the miracle of human development. Together, we can speak truth in love and offer hope to every patient, no matter how small.
