Helping Parents Experience the Miracle of Life
Winning my first wrestling match, graduating from West Point, my first day working in the White House: none of these special moments will ever come close to the joy of becoming a father.
Any parent can tell you that it’s a feeling unlike any other.
My wife Dina and I are blessed to share six amazing daughters between us, and watching them grow into remarkable young women is truly an unparalleled joy.
Sadly, many families around the country aren’t able to experience that miracle. Today, roughly 11% of women and 9% of men in the U.S. struggle with fertility. It’s no wonder, then, that according to Pew, “42% of Americans say they have used fertility treatments or personally know someone who has” — a 9-point jump in the last five years.
Parents struggling to conceive have found a ray of hope in options like in-vitro fertilization (IVF). This remarkable technology has helped bring 8 million babies into the world, and today roughly 2% of births in the United States come through IVF.
As a firm believer in pro-family policies, I will always support access to IVF to enable parents across our country to welcome children.
I believe that’s something my fellow Republicans should be able to get on board with, so I was pleased to see the swift condemnation of Alabama’s Supreme Court ruling that frozen embryos can be considered children and the state legislature’s resulting quick action to codify IVF.
My wife and I have many dear friends and colleagues who have used IVF, and we’ve seen how powerful this technology can be in turning despair into the celebration of a new life. It is a true blessing for these families and our society.
Take the story of Zac and Brittney Wolfe, a Pennsylvania couple eager to start a family but mired in the challenges of infertility for years. As they shared on Good Morning America, without IVF, their miracle of three amazing children would have never been possible.
When I led Bridgewater Associates, our team felt strongly that we had an obligation to support those trying to have children as well as parents in the workplace. That’s why as a company we helped pay for fertility services like IVF, which are often not covered by insurance and can be prohibitively expensive. We also offered financial assistance for adoption and surrogacy, as well as a paid family-leave policy. As CEO, I took great satisfaction from the fact that a number of friends and colleagues were able to experience the joy of having children thanks to these policies. They were good for our employees, good for their families, and good for business.
These experiences as a leader have stayed with me and shaped my strong support for IVF. As a senator, I’d work to protect this important option for the millions of Americans who are relying on it to start their own beautiful families.
Our pro-family policies should expand beyond protecting IVF. The federal government can better support young mothers by improving access to maternal health care.
We can also do more to support young families economically. From incentivizing paid family leave in the private sector to lowering the sky-high price of childcare, we can do more to help adults who feel like the blessing of children is “out of reach.”
And we need to make contraceptives more accessible and more affordable for women. We should also promote adoption services — an important part of the conversation that has helped so many Americans expand their families and give young children a beautiful home. All of these policies make up the kind of pro-family agenda that I believe Washington so desperately needs.
The miracle of life is a precious thing, and it’s always worth standing up for. I’ll continue to oppose any effort to restrict IVF because this is a moment where we need compassion and common sense to prevail, and I hope to bring that pro-family spirit to the United States Senate on behalf of all Pennsylvanians.
