Aetna Subsidizes Orphanhood
In a settlement last week, Aetna announced it would expand fertility coverage for same-sex couples nationwide following a federal class-action lawsuit, Berton v. Aetna, filed in the Northern District of California. Approved by US District Judge Haywood Gilliam Jr., the settlement requires Aetna to cover fertility treatments such as artificial insemination and in vitro fertilization (IVF) for same-sex couples on the same basis as heterosexual couples.
Far from a pro-life win, the settlement is a troubling redefinition of infertility, treating the intentional absence of a mother or father as irrelevant to a child’s well-being, while ignoring the well-documented eugenics and high loss of life associated with assisted reproductive technologies like IVF.
As Them Before Us founder Katy Faust put it, “Aetna to subsidize the manufacturing of motherless and fatherless children nationwide.”
Aetna to subsidize the manufacturing of motherless and fatherless children nationwide. https://t.co/492E30wR6C
— Katy Faust (@Advo_Katy) December 30, 2025
What Happened
The lawsuit was brought by couples in same-sex relationships who challenged Aetna’s fertility policy under Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act.
Under Aetna’s prior policy, coverage for fertility treatments required proof of infertility. For heterosexual couples, infertility could be established by a year of unprotected intercourse. For same-sex couples, Aetna required six to 12 cycles of unsuccessful artificial insemination, depending on age, before benefits.
Rather than defend the medical definition of infertility, Aetna agreed to settle. Under the new policy, same-sex couples may access fertility treatments without demonstrating infertility in any traditional medical sense. The settlement also includes at least $2 million in damages for eligible California policyholders and applies nationwide across Aetna plans.
This is the first case to impose this policy nationally on a health insurer.
Redefining Infertility
At the heart of Berton v. Aetna is a legal shift with serious consequences: infertility is no longer treated as a medical condition affecting a man and woman, but as any situation in which adults want a child but cannot conceive together.
That change transforms insurance coverage from treating illness to facilitating intentional family fragmentation.
Same-sex relationships are not infertile, but inherently sterile. Fertility is only possible within heterosexual relationships. Children conceived through donor technologies in these arrangements are intentionally deprived of either their mother, their father, or both from the moment of conception. Orphanhood is built into the design.
In the name of neutrality and so-called equity, Aetna created an institutional endorsement of creating motherless and fatherless children and forcing others to pay for it.
Children Are the Missing Party
What is most striking about this case is that nowhere in the legal proceedings are children treated as stakeholders with their own interests. The dispute centers entirely on adult access, adult cost, and adult definitions of fairness.
But children are not products to appease adult desire.
Research from the Institute for Family Studies consistently shows that, on average, children experience better emotional, educational, and economic outcomes when raised by their married biological mother and father. Recent research from Ohio reinforces these findings.
Similarly, studies and testimony highlighted by Them Before Us reveal that many donor-conceived individuals report identity loss, grief, and longing for the parent they were intentionally denied.
This settlement may resolve a legal dispute, but it exposes a moral failure. When courts and corporations redefine family without regard to children’s needs, the result is not progress but policy-driven harm.
Children deserve better, and public policy should reflect it.
For more information, contact CCV at 513-733-5775 or contact@ccv.org. For media inquiries, email media@ccv.org.
As Ohio's largest Christian public policy organization, Center for Christian Virtue seeks the good of our neighbors by advocating for public policy that reflects the truth of the Gospel.
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