ORLANDO, FL – Even though the U.S. abortion industry kills roughly 1 million unborn babies each year, data reveals that the number of conceived lives lost in America through in vitro fertilization (IVF) processes is far outpacing elective abortion.

According to 2022 data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the scale of loss of conceived embryos from IVF that year was nearly triple the lives lost to the abortion industry at more than 2.9 million.

Every unborn life should be protected, no matter their stage or location

In 2022, IVF clinics reported that patients underwent more than 435,000 IFV cycles, in which each cycle conceives about seven embryos. Researchers estimate that slightly more than 3 million embryos were created from these cycles. To maximize safety and success, the standard practice is to transfer only one embryo at a time leaving approximately 85 percent of the other created embryos (more than 2.5 million) to be frozen, discarded, or donated for scientific experimentation. Additionally, a 75 percent failure rate in 2022 showed that the 435,000 cycles resulted in about 98,000 live births out of the 3 million embryos created.

Medical experts suggest that between 1.2 million and 1.5 million embryos are currently stored in cryopreservation across the country where only a minute fraction will ever be thawed and implanted. Compared to the 1 million lives lost to elective abortion annually, the IVF industry is showing a significantly higher volume of lost, conceived lives.

Tragically, in addition, the IVF industry is growing largely without oversight. Minimal regulations are giving rise to the phrase that the U.S IVF industry is the “wild west.” Unlike the U.S. adoption process and the regulated IVF standards in other nations, the U.S. and many states do not restrict who can commission IVF services or regulate the process itself. There are few, if any, regulations based on marital status, age, background screenings, surrogacy, how many embryos can be created, and how they are to be frozen and stored. In addition, what used to be seen as a last resort for infertile married couples, the IVF market is now seeing demand from same-sex couples “purchasing gametes and hiring surrogates” to get babies.

As long as IVF clinics continue to operate as businesses where high volume and higher success rates are rewarded with financial gain, the U.S. IVF market is projected to exceed$15 billion annually by 2035.

Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, “Every human life begins as an embryo and has incalculable worth. The data makes a compelling case that the unregulated, commercialized IVF industry is destroying far more conceived lives than it births and even surpasses the elective abortion industry due to its high-volume scale per cycle. The U.S. IVF market needs regulation. Every unborn life should be protected, no matter their stage or location.”

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Liberty Counsel is an international nonprofit, litigation, education, and policy organization dedicated to advancing religious freedom, the sanctity of life, and the family since 1989, by providing pro bono assistance and representation on these and related topics.