Key Facts

• The Department of Health and Human Services now refers to frozen embryos as "children" in grant guidelines.
• The change applies to a nearly 20-year-old program that supports adopting frozen embryos created by IVF (in vitro fertilization).
• The program began in 2002 during President George W. Bush’s administration and helps couples use surplus frozen embryos instead of discarding them.
• Calling embryos "children" is a legal step toward granting embryos full personhood rights under the law.
• This move aligns with anti-abortion efforts to ban abortion and certain birth control methods by recognizing embryos as persons.
• The new focus prioritizes the "best interests of the child," meaning the frozen embryos, rather than the prospective parents.
• Similar legal recognition of frozen embryos as persons led to clinics in Alabama stopping IVF treatments.
• The Trump administration’s policy shift could have wide effects on abortion, fertility treatments, and reproductive rights.