IVF has been one of the most hotly contested topics of the Trump administration, as efforts to expand access to the fertility procedure have drawn sharp criticism from pro-lifers and the Make America Healthy Again movement. Earlier this month, however, the Office of Population Affairs’ Embryo Adoption Awareness and Services program delivered a refreshing pro-life win. Its grant notice rightly described embryo adoption as “serv[ing] the needs of a child already in existence, offering that child the opportunity for life within a stable and loving family” (emphasis added).

Rather than denying the humanity of human embryos, OPA recognizes that it is not dealing with just “potential life,” a “clump of cells,” or reproductive property, but with genetically complete and distinct human beings at their earliest stage of development. As with the adoption of children already born, it is an act of charity toward a child in need of a loving family. Unlike traditional adoption, the adoptive mother gestates and births the human embryo herself. And, while many couples struggling with infertility may pursue this option, embryo adoption is not, as OPA clarifies, a treatment for infertility.

Founded in 2002 with congressional funding, the program is itself an indictment of the fertility industry and the unrestrained use of IVF. The grant describes it “as a response to the existence of surplus embryos already created.” The sad reality is that in routine IVF cycles, fertility doctors aim to create as many embryos as possible to raise overall live-birth rates—and to let parents’ grade, genetically test, and select the “best” ones while destroying or indefinitely freezing the rest.

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No state or federal law requires clinics to track how many embryos are created in a cycle of IVF—a major oversight that Texas Congressman Daniel Alders’ IVF embryo reporting requirements bill aims to address. Still, rough estimates suggest that as many as 4.1 million embryos may be created each year in the United States. Given that only a little over 97,000 children were born from IVF in 2021, the vast majority of these embryos fail to implant, are frozen indefinitely, or are destroyed.

Estimates show that there are between 1.5 million and four million human embryos frozen in the United States today, with many of them in need of a home because their family of origin can no longer implant them. To date, over 3,000 human embryos have been adopted, with many more waiting.

What sets embryo adoption and the Embryo Adoption Awareness and Services program apart from simply purchasing donated embryos from a clinic is that adoption agencies enforce adoption-level standards. Those standards ensure that the child’s best interests, rather than just the desires of adults, drive the process.

To that end, the program sets clear standards for grant applicants. It favors open adoption over anonymous donation, requires informed consent about children’s desire to know their biological parents, and, crucially, mandates that “recipients must require that prospective adoptive parents complete adoption-equivalent screening prior to placement, including home studies, background checks, reference checks, and physical and mental health evaluations, as well as post-placement supervision coordinated by a qualified case worker.” This is unlike fertility clinics, where embryos are treated as donated tissue governed by property law—meaning anyone, for any reason, can buy a donated embryo if they can afford it.

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Like the adoption of children already born, embryo adoption carries real risks and difficulties. It requires the adoptive and gestational mother to undergo many of the same hormonal injections as traditional IVF, which can produce adverse health outcomes for mother and baby. The child, too, may struggle to come to terms with his or her origin and identity. And because IVF creates life apart from the sexual union of husband and wife, some Protestants and many Catholics see these embryos as bearing illicit origins that cast doubt on embryo adoption. The Roman Catholic Church has not officially ruled on its morality, and many Christians avoid the topic altogether.

Still, it is important to keep the ultimate reality in mind: If life begins at conception, and not merely at the start of pregnancy, then how we treat these human embryos is of the utmost importance.

Indefinite freezing, so-called compassionate transfers meant to prevent implantation, and outright destruction all violate the dignity of human persons made in the image of God. Embryo adoption offers a pathway of life-affirming, redemptive care—one in which a family, and the womb of the mother these embryos will call “mom,” can give children already in existence the chance to continue their lives.