Trump administration refers to frozen embryos as children in grant guidelines
9 reported
The Trump administration has referred to frozen embryos as "children" in a call for grant applications for a nearly 20-year-old program, according to a report from The Guardian. The Department of Health and Human Services used the terms "child" and "children" in a document related to the Embryo Adoption Awareness and Services grant, which was created in 2002 under the George W. Bush administration. The document calls for screening standards for frozen embryo purchasers to be raised to those applied to parents seeking to adopt actual children, and refers to frozen embryos as "children who already exist and are in need of a family." The Guardian describes this as a dramatic escalation of the Trump administration's pursuit of fetal personhood, the doctrine that fertilized eggs be granted constitutional rights as persons. The article notes that the new guidelines reorient the grant's priorities away from helping people become parents and toward what it calls "the best interests of the child," meaning embryos. The Guardian reports that this represents a significant new integration of fetal personhood language into federal government operations.
What’s reported
The Trump administration referred to frozen embryos as "children" in a call for grant applications for the Embryo Adoption Awareness and Services grant.
The Department of Health and Human Services used the terms "child" and "children" in the document.
The document calls for screening standards for frozen embryo purchasers to be raised to those applied to parents seeking to adopt actual children.
The document refers to frozen embryos as "children who already exist and are in need of a family."
The grant program was created in 2002 under the George W. Bush administration.
The Guardian describes this as a dramatic escalation of the Trump administration's pursuit of fetal personhood.
The new guidelines reorient the grant's priorities toward "the best interests of the child," meaning embryos.
The article cites a 2024 Alabama state supreme court case that declared frozen embryos persons under state law, calling them "extrauterine children" and designating freezers as "cryogenic nurseries."
The Alabama ruling led fertility clinics in the state to halt IVF, and the state legislature later assembled to protect IVF practices.
Key figures
Moira Donegan, Guardian US columnist (author of the article)
George W. Bush, former US president (mentioned in context of creating the grant program in 2002)
Sources: The Guardian
