Higher rates of autism? The harsh reality of being an IVF baby



In-vitro fertilization is sold as a cure-all for those struggling with fertility issues — but not only does it rarely work, it also can cause a myriad of issues in the mother and child when it does.

Jennifer Lahl, founder of the Center for Bioethics and Culture Network, is one of the leading voices sounding the alarm.

“IVF is fraught with risk. It’s risky to the woman’s health; it’s risky to the health of the unborn child,” Lahl tells BlazeTV host Allie Beth Stuckey on “Relatable.” “You can just follow the CDC data, and for the last 10-plus years, overwhelmingly, all IVF cycles fail.”

Data is now coming out that IVF increases the chance of pregnancy-related complications, like preterm labor and birth defects.


“My grandson was born with a heart defect. And when his care was transferred to a big university hospital in California, two independent pediatric cardiologists there said, ‘Is he an IVF baby?’ He’s not, but in the medical literature, IVF babies have much higher rates of congenital heart defects at birth,” Lahl explains.

“Shouldn’t that be something that at least could make us pause and think? We know that pregnancy is risky; I know that, you know, any child that’s born healthy, praise God, because there’s a lot of things that can go wrong to make children born with all kinds of defects, but knowingly doing it, I think, is problematic,” she continues.

Stuckey has also done her research on the issues associated with IVF, and one of them is a higher prevalence of the child being diagnosed with autism.

“Specifically because there was a fertility problem on the father’s part. So that is because say a dad has basically immobile sperm. They’re just not fast enough, strong enough, to do what they have to do in the natural fertility reproduction process,” Stuckey says, noting that in IVF they “take the sperm and put it on the egg.”

“There is a reason that that sperm isn’t working. There’s an underlying issue there that will affect the baby that is born, because those sperm weren’t supposed to re-create, and when you force them to re-create, then the baby is going to inherit a lot of problems,” she adds.

“People like to say, ‘We’re playing God,’ and I always say, ‘Well, no, because God doesn’t play that way. We’re playing naughty people,'” Lahl agrees.

“There’s a natural order to how things are supposed to work and how our bodies are supposed to work, and even though the human body is incredibly resilient, our fertility is very fragile,” she adds.

Want more from Allie Beth Stuckey?

To enjoy more of Allie’s upbeat and in-depth coverage of culture, news, and theology from a Christian, conservative perspective, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

Reaction To IVF Bombing Proves Even The People Who Destroy Embryos Know They’re Human

[rebelmouse-proxy-image https://thefederalist.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Screenshot-2025-05-18-at-10.13.30 PM-e1747660226481-1200x675.png crop_info="%7B%22image%22%3A%20%22https%3A//thefederalist.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Screenshot-2025-05-18-at-10.13.30%5Cu202fPM-e1747660226481-1200x675.png%22%7D" expand=1]Both the alleged bomber and the fertility facility treat embryonic life as disposable. One, however, is accepted and celebrated for doing so.

Fertility clinic bombing suspect declared war on 'pro-lifers' in alleged manifesto



A fertility clinic in Palm Springs, California, was the apparent target of a car bomb on Saturday.

The FBI identified Guy Edward Bartkus, who was killed in the explosion, as the suspect in the attack.

'I think we need a war against pro-lifers.'

Akil Davis, the assistant director of the FBI's Los Angeles field office, stated that the incident appeared to be "an intentional act of violence." Davis also referred to the attack as "terrorism," linking the suspect to "nihilistic ideations."

"This was a targeted attack against the [in-vitro fertilization] facility," Davis said. "Make no mistake: We are treating this, as I said yesterday, as an intentional act of terrorism."

Interim U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California Bill Essayli confirmed that the explosion was intentional.

"My office along with the FBI will be leading the terrorism investigation into this incident. Federal prosecutors and special agents are on scene," Essayli said. "We do not believe there is any further threat to the public at this time. We will release as much information as possible that does not jeopardize our active investigation."

The explosion, which occurred in the facility's parking lot, caused significant damage to American Reproductive Centers and nearby buildings. Bartkus, 25, died in the blast, and at least four others were injured. No embryos were destroyed, according to the clinic.

RELATED: Wyoming abortion ban blocked hours after suspect arrested in connection to clinic fire

— (@)

American Reproductive Centers stated in part, "We are immensely grateful to share that no members of the ARC team were harmed, and our lab — including all eggs, embryos, and reproductive materials — remains fully secure and undamaged. We are heavily conducting a complete safety inspection and have confirmed that our operations and sensitive medical areas were not impacted by the blast."

The FBI believes that Bartkus had planned to livestream the attack. It is currently investigating "a possible manifesto."

In an alleged online manifesto, the suspect shared his anti-natalist beliefs.

"The end goal is for the truth (Efilism) to win, and once it does, we can finally begin the process of sterilizing this planet of the disease of life," it reportedly read. "Life can only continue as long as people hold the delusional belief that it is not a zero sum game causing senseless torture, and messes it can never, or only partially, clean up."

"I think we need a war against pro-lifers," it added.

The alleged manifesto also encouraged viewers to "download the recorded stream of my suicide & bombing of an IVF clinic."

RELATED: War on faith: How anti-Catholic violence is exploding almost unnoticed

On Sunday, KTLA spoke with Bartkus’ father, Richard Bartkus, who claims he had not spoken with his son for over a decade.

He claimed that his son had a history of setting fires, including burning down their family home at 9 years old.

“What my [former] wife, what my daughter knows, I really don’t know. But they had to see a change in him. They don’t just go off like that and nobody sees a change,” he told KTLA.

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi stated that she had been briefed about the attack.

“We are working to learn more, but let me be clear: the Trump administration understands that women and mothers are the heartbeat of America. Violence against a fertility clinic is unforgivable,” she wrote in a post on X.

— (@)

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Exclusive: Americans overwhelmingly support one of Trump’s more surprising campaign promises

'I believe there’s nothing more life-affirming'

NBC News: Embryos Are Valuable And Worth Protection (But Only When They Are Wanted)

NBC News’ dangerous double standard on the fate of embryos deems life valuable and worth protection only if it is desired.

Texas Bill Seeks To Hold Big Fertility Accountable By Mandating Embryo Destruction Reports

[rebelmouse-proxy-image https://thefederalist.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Screenshot-2025-03-06-at-2.21.50 PM-1200x675.png crop_info="%7B%22image%22%3A%20%22https%3A//thefederalist.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Screenshot-2025-03-06-at-2.21.50%5Cu202fPM-1200x675.png%22%7D" expand=1]The legislation paves the way for a semblance of transparency in an industry that has spent years evading it.

Adoption Is The Pro-Life Antidote To The IVF Onslaught

In addition to educating Americans on the major ethical problems with IVF, pro-lifers need to offer a solution to the many couples who want to have children but are not able to do so.

Making America Healthy Again Starts With Addressing The Root Causes Of Infertility

[rebelmouse-proxy-image https://thefederalist.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Screenshot-2025-02-24-at-9.00.31 AM-1200x675.png crop_info="%7B%22image%22%3A%20%22https%3A//thefederalist.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Screenshot-2025-02-24-at-9.00.31%5Cu202fAM-1200x675.png%22%7D" expand=1]Making America Healthy Again starts with stopping Big Pharma’s reach. That includes its integral role in in vitro fertilization.

IVF Won’t MAGA

A giant government handout to an unaccountable and often evil industry is not the way to make America great again.

1 baby born, 15 killed: Why IVF is the Big Pharma way to solve the fertility crisis



President Trump has just signed an executive order to look into ways to expand access to in vitro fertilization — which has become a controversial issue among conservatives, since many pro-lifers view it as just as bad as abortion.

The process takes the egg of the mother, combines it with the sperm of the father, and puts it in a petri dish to create an embryo.

“IVF recreates the moment of conception but in a lab,” Glenn Beck of “The Glenn Beck Program” says. “It’s a controversial process because at least those of us on the right, we celebrate the creation of life.”

“It’s a miracle that a couple that can’t have a child, or is struggling to conceive, can. But on the other hand, a lot of the embryos created in the lab are discarded, and if you believe that life begins at conception, that means you’re throwing away, or worse, experimenting on new life,” he adds.


Reportedly, over 90% of the children created through IVF die. They’re either left frozen and abandoned, destroyed due to eugenics, experimented on, or miscarried. Only 7% are born.

“This is such a gut-wrenching topic to talk about, because every baby born, regardless of the circumstances of their conception, is beautiful and worthy of dignity,” Liz Wheeler of “The Liz Wheeler Show” tells Glenn.

“So all those beautiful babies that were created by IVF are not less so because that was the circumstances of their conception,” Wheeler says, noting that it also gives hope to those struggling to conceive themselves.

“IVF can fulfill this deep desire in your heart to have a baby. I fully empathize with that. But all that being said, the reality of in vitro fertilization is not what it is portrayed to be. Because for every one of those beautiful babies that’s born, about 15 babies are killed,” she tells Glenn.

“It’s not a pro-life endeavor to support in vitro fertilization as a solution to the infertility crisis that we are suffering in this nation,” she continues, adding that IVF is also “anti-MAHA.”

“One of the exciting things about the Trump administration is that he chose Bobby Kennedy to partner with him, to actually investigate the root causes of the chronic health crisis in our nation,” she explains. “Let’s apply that same philosophy to the fertility crisis, let’s not just put a Band-Aid over this, let’s go to the root cause and say, ‘Hey, why is women’s fertility struggling right now, what could be causing that, because that’s not how its supposed to be.’”

“It’s the same thing as what’s happening to our children. We have Big Pharma and Big Food, and it’s poisoning our bodies, it’s disrupting our endocrine systems, it’s disrupting our hormones,” she continues. “There are identifiable things, measurable things, that are happening to our bodies that we can reverse if we stop letting Big Food and Big Pharma dictate.”

“That’s where it gets back to IVF,” she tells Glenn. “This is a cash cow for Big Pharma. They make a ton of money off of in vitro fertilization.”

Want more from Glenn Beck?

To enjoy more of Glenn’s masterful storytelling, thought-provoking analysis, and uncanny ability to make sense of the chaos, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.