Dr. Oz Adds ‘Underbabied’ to List of Issues Facing American Families

On Thursday, Donald Trump announced his new, minor plans to lower IVF costs—which are not even close to the promises the self-described “father of IVF” made on the campaign trail. Nevertheless, the White House held a press conference, and Dr. Mehmet Oz, the Medicare and Medicaid Administrator, credited the president for solving the problem of infertility. “It’s about one in three families that don’t have the number of babies they desire,” he said, “They’re underbabied.” Oh.

Oz: “One in three families don’t have the number of babies they desire. They’re underbabied.”pic.twitter.com/p8anwTfiOT

— Molly Ploofkins (@Mollyploofkins) October 16, 2025

It’s not exactly clear where Oz got his new vocabulary word—or that data. In the U.S., about 9% of men and 11% of women are affected by infertility, and globally, that number’s about one in six. He also suggested (or threatened) that the news probably means “there are going to be a lot of Trump babies.” Huge yikes.

Speaking from the White House, Trump introduced two minimal changes to lower the cost of IVF: an add-on insurance option from employers to help cover IVF treatments, and discounted prices for IVF drugs from one company, EMD Serono. Both moves, however, fall short of his original promise to make IVF free.

In August 2024, Trump said that “the government is going to pay for it [IVF], ‘or we’re going to get, we’ll mandate your insurance company to pay for it, which is going to be great.” IVF can cost between $15,000 and $20,000 for a single cycle and can exceed $30,000 if a donor egg is involved. The out-of-pocket costs do not include medication, and it’s common for people to need several rounds before they get pregnant.

But over the summer, the Washington Post revealed the White House was quietly backing away from its initial pledge, as Trump couldn’t find a way to fulfill his promise without burdening health insurers.

And that still seems to be the case, since the new policies neither require employers to participate nor do they reveal how much coverage will actually be offered. Also, the senior vice president and director of women’s health policy at KFF, a nonpartisan health policy organization, told The 19th that employees could already offer IVF whenever they wanted: “There’s nothing stopping any employer right now,” she said. “Other than the cost of such a benefit could be prohibitive.”

Further, when asked about religious groups who oppose IVF—since the procedure involves destroying unused embryos—Trump said: “I think this is very pro-life. This is, you can’t get more pro-life than this.” The head of the anti-abortion group Students for Life disagreed. “While it could have been worse, it’s still a reflection that they aren’t totally on board,”  Kristan Hawkins wrote on Twitter. “I’m thankful there’s no new healthcare mandate forcing coverage for the destructive IVF industry, but IVF, as it’s practiced, still destroys countless humans in the embryonic stage.”

Naturally, no health-related White House press conference can take place without HHS Secretary RFK Jr. chiming in to rant about something bizarre. On Thursday, it was teenage testosterone levels.

“Today, the average teenager in this country has 50% of the sperm count. 50% of the testosterone, as a 65-year-old man,” the secretary said.” Our girls are hitting puberty six years earlier, and that’s bad. But also, our parents aren’t having children.”

That’s not how words work. https://t.co/EvX7U4I95c

— Hemant Mehta (@hemantmehta) October 16, 2025

According to science, sperm counts tend to decline with age, so yes, a teenage boy is likely to have a higher sperm count than a man in his late sixties. Why a 71-year-old cabinet secretary needs to keep talking about this, however, is inexplicable. “Parents who want to have children do not have access. I have seven children,” RFK Jr. said. “I feel that God has blessed me with that.” Good for you, dude?

The press conference seemed to be further evidence of MAGA’s obsession with and embrace of the pronatalist movement. Aside from Trump bragging about being the IVF Daddy, Vice President JD Vance has repeatedly—and creepily—pushed for more Americans having more kids. (In January, he specifically said he wants more “beautiful young men and women” to have more babies.) The New York Times also reported in April how the White House had asked for proposals for how to persuade more Americans to get married and have babies—with ideas ranging from a $5,000 “baby bonus” to Nazi-like medals for people who have six or more kids.

“The initiatives I’ve just announced are the boldest and most significant actions ever taken by any president to bring the miracle of life into more American homes,” Trump concluded about his IVF policies. Well… it would have been more bold and significant if he’d actually kept his promise to make IVF free.

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