New Arkansas law promotes misleading fertility treatment
Arkansas Republicans have passed a law that undercuts the science around in-vitro fertilization (IVF) in favor of discredited “restorative reproductive medicine (RRM).”
The Republican dominated legislature passed House Bill 1142, dubbed the Reproductive Empowerment and Support Through Optimal Restoration Act, and Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R) signed it into law in April. HB 1142 will go into effect in August and require insurance companies in Arkansas to cover restorative reproductive health care medicine (RRM). According to the bill’s text, RRM is defined as “a scientific approach to reproductive medicine that seeks to cooperate with or restore the normal physiology and anatomy of the human reproductive system.”
The bill lists the ways to achieve this goal, including “teacher-led reproductive health education, blood tests, ultrasounds, hormone panels, exploratory surgeries, elimination of environmental disruptors), natural procreative technology and fertility awareness methods.”
According to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), RRM can expose patients to unnecessary and painful surgical interventions, which can increase out-of-pocket costs and delay time to pregnancy when prioritized over evidence-based infertility care from an OBGYN or fertility specialist. ACOG also criticizes the RRM approach for focusing on lifestyle changes and fertility awareness.
https://heartlandsignal.com/2025/07/11/new-arkansas-law-promotes-misleading-fertility-treatment/