When he was campaigning in 2024, President Donald Trump proclaimed that in his presidency, in vitro fertilization (IVF) would be free for anyone who wants it. Now, Republicans intend to cut funding for it altogether in the programs that do currently fund it.
Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) told CNN on Tuesday that she intends to hammer Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth as he appears before the Senate Appropriations Committee to discuss Trump's funding demands for the Iran war. She wants to know what Hegseth has spent so far and what it will cost in the future. The last amount Congress saw, she said, was $35 billion, but that was well over a month ago and only included munitions. She fears it's now over $100 billion.
The Washington Post reported Tuesday that the Pentagon has been forced to move money around to help it fund the president's war while it's "sinking billions" into bombing. The Defense Department was fully funded previously, but the war in Iran is contributing to a shortfall.
"The funding crunch is already leading the Pentagon to limit training and maintenance that help maintain military readiness, according to four current and former officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity to candidly describe the budget constraints," the report said.
Duckworth also wants to know the official number of soldiers who have actually been wounded due to the war with Iran. Current estimations show over 100 have been wounded.
When CNN host Wolf Blitzer asked about Hegseth's new testosterone initiative, Duckworth said that the Pentagon should care about all health needs of a soldier and not force testosterone on those who don't want it.
"We're in the middle of a war that he is failing to execute properly against Iran, and he's worried about testosterone levels for men in the military," she said. "You know, it seems like to me, gender affirming therapy ... and if he's going to do gender affirming therapy, then let's also extend hormone testing to female service members so that if they have infertility issues, they can apply for and get coverage for IVF."
Duckworth revealed that the administration and GOP Senators have blocked bills providing IVF for soldiers suffering with fertility issues.
One of the biggest challenges, she said, is that members of the military are more likely to leave the military to start a family because they lack access to fertility issues.
"We can't afford to lose fully trained service members that we've invested all this money in, because we won't provide them with the health care that they need. So if Hegseth wants to provide hormone therapy to service members, he should extend it to all service members so that they can get the full range of their health conditions attended to, because we want them in the best fighting condition they possibly can be in to defend America," said Duckworth.
This defense bill excludes IVF funding to begin with. Duckworth suffered from issues having children. Infertility issues among both men and women in the military are double that of the civilian population. Trump signed an executive order to make IVF medications cheaper.