The American Society of Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) has a quiet but heavy influence and financial hand on assisted reproductive technology (ART) protocols in the United States.
The organization boasts “the advancement of the science and practice of reproductive medicine” and reports nearly 8,000 members, but its influence in the fertility world is not evenhanded. In 2026 alone, ASRM sponsored a plethora of left-wing ventures, including a $125,000 award for a study dedicated to observing the reproductive consequences of female mice pumped with testosterone. The stated goal of the experiment is to help “transgender men” have children through in vitro fertilization (IVF).
ASRM granted another scientist $125,000 to study how climate and “racial/ethnic disparities” affect menstrual health. The organization also sent $30,000 to Men Having Babies, Inc., which supports gay men pursuing pregnancy via surrogacy and IVF, and All Paths Family Building, which supports pro-LGBTQ “fertility” and hosts LGBTQ couples on their podcast.
ASRM’s politically directed funding is just the beginning. ASRM encourages testing on human embryos, stating in their “ethics guidelines” that “Research involving human embryos is ethically acceptable if it is likely to provide significant new knowledge that may benefit human health, well-being of the offspring, or reproduction.”
ASRM suggests IVF-created embryos, which science affirms are living from the moment of lab conception, are merely “potential” humans, thus implying that experiments on them are acceptable and not a death sentence that destroys more unborn babies than abortion.
A current member of ASRM’s advisory board directed a study examining the components of human embryos that killed all 117 she used. ASRM also sponsored an experiment by Salomeh Salari that tested the effects of depriving embryos of oxygen.
In an effort to indulge LGBT couples and singles who want access to children, ASRM also promotes research into in vitro gametogenesis (IVG). IVG involves harvesting stem cells, which are in blood, skin cells, and hair cells, and turning them into egg or sperm cells. Katy Faust, founder of the pro-life group “Them Before Us,” told The Federalist that a future with IVG could look like “see[ing] an adult who only grew to like five foot six and didn’t have a perfect ACT score, and being like, ‘Oh, that’s the natural-born kid.”
ASRM lists studying IVG as a “priority” and created a yearly research grant to support ongoing study. One 2026 awardee, who received up to $125,000, led a project called “Defining the Molecular Origins of Human Germ Cells to Improve In Vitro Gametogenesis.” Two other grants, one that gives $50 to $750,000 a year and another that gives up to $40,000 a year, are focused explicitly on stem cell research. One way to earn the latter is to “apply what has been learned from animal models to in vitro gametogenesis in the human.”
ASRM claims to recognize that offering services that create people on a “large scale,” using only stem cells, and eugenically selecting for certain characteristics could create “increased discrimination” against those with diseases and disabilities or children born naturally. ASRM even admits that IVG leads to eugenics, saying that it “raises concern about the commodification of human life,” and could create a future where “inequality is inescapable from birth” if “genetic selection determines social status and opportunities.”
However, ASRM brushes off those concerns even after noticing those issues with IVF. Faust warned that “people don’t understand that our inability to regulate the basics right now bodes so poorly for the dystopian future we’re headed for.”
Profit Over Principles
Through partnerships with other medical groups and the federal government, ASRM has exercised control over the fertility industry.
ASRM is affiliated with five institutions key to reproductive technology research. One is the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology (SART). Alongside ASRM, SART, which advertises same-sex partnering on its homepage, runs a membership program for fertility facilities in the United States.
Garnering SART approval requires clinics to obey ASRM’s ethical guidelines. ASRM estimates that more than 90 percent of U.S. fertility clinics have a SART certification. A leading IVF provider, CCRM Fertility, estimates 80 percent of fertility clinics are SART members, and that “If a clinic you’re considering is not a member of SART, that’s a red flag.”
In addition to its role in SART’s supervision of fertility clinics, ASRM lobbies for leftist social issues including IVF, abortion, and transgender “care.” Between 2022 and 2024, ASRM spent $337,000 on lobbying and another $962,633 on grassroots just in 2024, according to their IRS Form 990.
The organization sent 10 letters this year demanding state lawmakers define embryos as “non-persons” and declare IVF a right. ASRM sent other letters praising pro-abortion laws, condemning bills limiting surgical and chemical abortion, championing transgender mutilation and puberty blockers for minors, and promoting bills that would define sex and gender as subjective.
ASRM has also dedicated vast resources to fighting restorative reproductive medicine (RRM), which seeks to treat infertility by addressing underlying health issues, including sending letters to every governor claiming RRM is not “grounded in science” or “evidence-based.” ASRM even has a page on its website dedicated to criticizing RRM.
Emma Waters, a policy analyst at The Heritage Foundation’s Center for Technology and the Human Person, told The Federalist ASRM opposes RRM because it “pose[s] an immense threat to the business model and industry of a default IVF-first approach that [ASRM] has benefited from for decades.” Faust agreed that ASRM promotes IVF and other ART over RRM because they have much larger profit margins.
“[IVF] is one of the most lucrative things in the medical industry because it is [deregulated], and the people that they are serving are often really desperate to have a baby, and they capitalize on that,” she said.
ASRM also attacks RRM because it recognizes embryos as persons. ASRM issued a statement calling the treatment method a religiously and politically motivated response to IVF rooted in the “antiabortion pro-personhood stance.” ASRM blames the Trump administration, Christianity, and the political right for the rise of “fringe” RRM treatments, rather than factors such as ethical concerns, increased interest in root causes, and lower-intervention health options.
To set the record straight on “fetal personhood ideology,” ASRM issued a “position statement” opposing the recognition of human embryos as distinct persons starting at conception, even though, as Waters noted, “human embryos are genetically complete and distinct human persons at the earliest stage of their biological development.”
“There is a clear moment of conception or fertilization where it goes from two separate gametes, an egg and sperm, to this new entity that is a human embryo,” Waters noted.
The Battle Has Just Begun
ASRM recently started taking drastic actions to embed IVF as America’s response to infertility. Earlier this year, ASRM pushed Tennessee to reject pro-life stances on IVF.
After an IVF facility in the state with many frozen embryos in storage closed, two bills defining embryos as humans emerged in Tennessee’s 2025 legislative session. ASRM worked with Tennessee lobbyists to push for a separate bill to require all Tennessee fertility clinics to be certified by SART, which requires clinics to follow ASRM’s ethical guidelines and its views on embryos. That alternative bill became law in May 2026.
Josh Wood, the executive director of Them Before Us, was in Tennessee fighting ASRM’s bill before it passed. He told The Federalist that lawmakers regret supporting the bill.
“Even the lawmakers that talked to us that voted initially for the [bill] relented or recanted and actually wanted to get to us on record to send a letter to say ‘We didn’t really realize what the bill was doing. Please veto,’ but [the governor] still [signed it],” he said.
ASRM has stated that it may take similar actions in other states if their legislatures try to recognize embryos as humans.
