By Mandy Cox
Our recent Everyday Ethics blogs have explored how to respond to employee requests for infertility treatments (Preparing a Response: Infertility Treatments) and the Catholic principles guiding these treatments (How Catholics Approach Treating Infertility). Now, let’s focus on the solutions health plans should cover and how employers can guide employees facing these challenges.
Restoring Reproductive Health
Many Catholics feel abandoned by mainstream medicine, which often promotes treatments that conflict with their faith. Women, in particular, struggle with medical approaches that overlook the root causes of infertility. As a Catholic employer, you have a unique opportunity to offer life-affirming health benefits that address underlying conditions and restore overall well-being.
Reproductive health is more than just fertility—it affects a woman’s heart, bones, brain, hormones, and emotions. Yet, many women are prescribed birth control or IUDs to mask symptoms rather than treat the actual issue. When they try to conceive, the unresolved condition comes back to the forefront. However, some women only discover their underlying health issues when they experience infertility.
Restorative Reproductive Medicine (RRM) takes a disease-based approach, treating reproductive health as an essential part of overall wellness. These personalized treatments restore the body’s natural function, improving both health and fertility while respecting the dignity of marriage and human life.
Many people, including Christians and Catholics alike, are unaware of alternatives to artificial reproductive technologies like IVF. Our employees may not know that there are alternatives that align with life-affirming principles. IVF is now back in the forefront of conversations in our country. Catholic media has shared numerous resources on ethical infertility treatments (see links: here, here, here, and here). As an employer, your health plan can guide employees toward morally sound solutions.
Providing Ethical Solutions
If your health plan excludes artificial insemination, IVF, and surrogacy, that’s an important first step. But you can do more to support employees seeking ethical fertility treatments.
- Prepare Thoughtful Responses – 1 Peter 3:15 reminds us to be ready to answer with hope and understanding. Thoughtful responses to employee inquiries ensure they feel supported, not dismissed.
- Know Your Resources – Research local or in-network providers specializing in restorative reproductive medicine. Having these resources readily available helps employees feel guided rather than abandoned.
- Enhance Your Health Plan – Consider adding services like NaProTechnology and other RRM approaches. If you’re unsure what to include or lack providers in your area, we’re here to help. Check out our recent blog post Catholic Employers Should Cover NaProTechnology.
Your organization is different from others—your commitment to employee well-being is evident in all you do. Providing moral resources for employees facing infertility is another way to show Christ’s love for them.