ASRM Center for Policy and Leadership Warns Federal Funding Cuts Are Undermining Reproductive Health Infrastructure

April 17, 2026

For Immediate Release

Washington, DC—The American Society for Reproductive Medicine’s (ASRM) Center for Policy and Leadership (CPL), ASRM’s non-partisan think tank, today released a white paper analyzing how recent federal funding reductions and workforce cuts are affecting the systems that support reproductive health care, research, and patient safety in the United States.

“Federal investment in reproductive health is essential to the systems that make safe, effective care possible,” said Rebecca O’Connor, JD, Director of the CPL. “Reproductive health encompasses an entire spectrum of care that includes infertility and in vitro fertilization (IVF), maternal health, pregnancy outcomes, contraception, and other gynecologic conditions. From research and data collection to clinical oversight, these programs support patients and physicians every day. Weakening them risks slowing scientific progress and limiting access to care for millions of people.”

The report, The Impact of Federal Funding Cuts on Patients, Providers, and the Field of Reproductive Medicine, outlines how cuts across key federal agencies, including the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), are disrupting core public health functions that patients and providers rely on. These include biomedical research, clinical oversight, and data-collection systems that support safe and effective fertility care.

The most significant events and impacts identified in the report include:

• The elimination of the CDC’s Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) Surveillance Team, which supported national IVF data collection and reporting required under federal law, raising concerns about the future of transparency and quality monitoring in fertility care
• Disruptions to the NIH research ecosystem, including the termination or delay of thousands of grants, with implications for innovation in infertility treatment, maternal health, and reproductive science
• Workforce reductions at federal agencies may limit the FDA’s ability to review and regulate reproductive health technologies and treatments in a timely and effective manner
• Broader constraints on federal public health infrastructure that support access to care, patient protections, and evidence-based policymaking

The report also examines how these changes may have downstream effects on patients, including reduced access to timely care, fewer treatment options, and slower progress in addressing infertility and other reproductive health conditions.

“This analysis could not be more timely,” said Sean Tipton, ASRM Chief Advocacy and Policy Officer. “President Trump’s FY 2027 budget proposal would cut up to $5 billion from the National Institutes of Health—undermining a key federal partner in reproductive health—on top of prior reductions.”

The report underscores that reproductive medicine depends on a coordinated public health infrastructure, and that sustained federal support is essential to maintain innovation, ensure patient safety, and inform evidence-based policy decisions.

The full policy analysis is available here.