Hosted by me, Emma Waters, a policy expert in reproductive health, Rethinking Fertility is a podcast about navigating reproductive technology, and what it means to be human in an age of limitless medical possibility. Be the first to watch now.

Welcome to RethinkingFertility.com

Our new website is also live today. We’re posting original content designed to offer help and hope wherever you are on your fertility journey — whether you are:

• Beginning to wonder why pregnancy hasn’t happened yet

• Seeking to diagnose and treat the root causes of infertility or reproductive health conditions

• Weighing difficult decisions about IVF

• Wondering what the IVF process actually looks like — and the ethical questions it raises

• Reflecting on past IVF cycles

• Sitting with frozen embryos and unsure what to do next

• Exploring the beauty and complexity of embryo adoption

• Grieving a loss the world around you doesn’t quite see

We’ll also share news and updates about the podcast and our host organization, Frozen Orphans.

Why This Podcast Exists

The podcast began with a simple premise: What if everything you’ve been told about your fertility is wrong? What if the advice we’ve been given is actually making things worse?

We have a decades-old, one-size-fits-all medical system.

A system that hands girls a pill in their teens, harvests their eggs in their twenties, and sells them a $30,000 procedure when they’re ready to have children in their forties.

“Reproductive healthcare” has long served as shorthand for three things: abortion, birth control, and IVF. But consider what each of these actually does. One ends unborn life. Another suppresses a woman’s reproductive system by placing her in a state of medicated menopause. And the third bypasses the body altogether. Each relies on symptom management rather than addressing root causes. Each treats the body — whether the woman’s, the man’s, or the unborn child’s — as a problem to be managed, rather than a gift to be known, loved, and restored.

As I shared in a recent essay for World Magazine,

“Consider what women are typically offered today. When a pregnancy is dangerous, unplanned, or financially overwhelming, abortion is presented as the solution. When cycles are painful or irregular—often early signs of endometriosis or other hormonal conditions—the answer is the birth control pill, which masks symptoms without treating, reversing, or even slowing the progression of the underlying disease. And when a woman struggles to conceive, she is directed toward IVF, a procedure that bypasses the body entirely to create, discard, and freeze human embryos, while leaving the root causes of infertility untouched in both partners.”

We can, and we must, do better. But if you’re like me, this wasn’t always intuitive.

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How I Got Here

My first memory of thinking about infertility was at seventeen, watching a couple in our church grieve their inability to have children — despite their extraordinary love and readiness for parenthood. (Praise God, they are parents today.) I distinctly remembering telling my mom, “I would be a surrogate for them right now if that would help.”

The problem was clear: infertility. The response was right: grief, compassion, and a desire to help. But the solution I imagined would have introduced a cascade of new problems — adverse health outcomes for all involved, a surrogacy agreement, a child severed from the only woman she knew at birth, and the introduction of a third person into what is, by design, a two-person covenant. I didn’t know any of that then. I just wanted to help.

The same naivety applied to birth control. I assumed that hormonal contraception was simply what responsible people did to space or delay pregnancy. It wasn’t until my fiancé and I were meeting with our pastor that I began learning about abortifacient concerns and something no one had ever told me: hormonal birth control doesn’t just affect fertility. Because hormones govern the entire body, suppressing them affects a woman’s mood, sense of self, physical health, and even her attractions. I had never heard any of this.

Finally, there is the total fear-fueled meltdown I had about kids when I was in college—culminating in a dramatic break-up with my then-boyfriend and now-husband, Jack. The turning point came when a mentor said plainly: “Emma, either you’re right that children will ruin your life, or God’s Word is right that they’re a blessing. But you can’t both be right.” That single conversation marked a turning point in how I thought about marriage, motherhood, and work. (I write about it at length in my first book, Lead Like Jael, if you want the full story.)

These aren’t merely questions about medicine or family planning. They reach the core of what it means to be embodied men and women — touching our fears, our deepest desires, and our very presence in the world.

Join Us

These conversations are long overdue. It’s time to approach them from a consistently pro-life and holistic perspective — recalibrating “reproductive healthcare” toward truly innovative, restorative, and life-affirming medicine that works with the body rather than against it.

And, rather than simply debating the morality of the options we’ve been handed, it’s time to talk about the better way forward.

Welcome to Rethinking Fertility — a podcast, website, and Substack exploring the intersection of infertility, reproductive health, faith, technology, and culture.

The trailer is live today. The first full episode releases this Tuesday.

Watch the trailer — then subscribe and follow us on Instagram, X and Facebook so you don’t miss a beat.

Rethinking Fertility is produced in partnership with Frozen Orphans, an organization dedicated to equipping families to navigate reproductive technology through a biblical understanding of the human person. Their forthcoming documentary on the frozen embryo crisis is deeply moving — whether you’ve done IVF, are navigating infertility, or are just starting to ask these questions. Watch their trailer here.

How I got here

In 2022, I had a realization that would change the course of my work: reproductive technologies are rapidly redefining what it means to be human, and most of us aren’t even paying attention.

While plenty of organizations were focused on abortion, almost no one had a dedicated person working on IVF, surrogacy, or gene editing.

The broader landscape of emerging reproductive technology was largely unaddressed, and certainly not from a pro-life angle that also promoted root cause treatments.

So I became that person.

It’s been a wild ride ever since. In 2024, the Alabama Supreme Court’s IVF ruling turned my policy niche into a flashpoint in the presidential election, and interest in these issues hasn’t slowed down since. Overnight, both parties were scrambling to position themselves as the “pro-IVF party.” What this moment revealed, at its best, was a genuine desire to help couples struggling with infertility.

But it also revealed how little most people understand about what IVF and infertility actually involve.

Many say “IVF is pro-life because it creates babies,” and without a doubt, we celebrate every child born. But that framing fails to account for the roughly 90% of human embryos that are genetically tested, discarded, used in research, indefinitely frozen, or miscarry (a condition IVF doesn’t treat) over the course of IVF. There are already at least an estimated 1.5 million frozen human embryos in the United States, and some estimates suggest that more human embryos may be lost through IVF than abortion each year. And sadly, few real legal protections exist for parents or their human embryos.

But even setting all of that aside, here’s the deeper problem: even if we got every protection we wanted in place for IVF, it still wouldn’t solve the underlying question — how do we actually help couples who are struggling with infertility have the children they desire?

IVF has an overall success rate of 25-35% per cycle, plus high costs and increased health risks, and most couples need two to three cycles to achieve a live birth. For couples who want a larger family, the numbers are even starker: only 0.9% of IVF births in the US are a third child.

IVF may help some couples have a child, but it will never solve our fertility crisis because it doesn’t actually treat infertility. It merely bypasses the man and woman’s body to create human embryos. Indeed, IVF does not:

• improve egg and sperm quality,

• decrease miscarriage rates,

• balance hormone levels, or

• optimize a woman’s body to actually support a child in utero.

We are pouring enormous financial, physical, and emotional resources into IVF, and yet few people are asking why more people are struggling with infertility in the first place.

So what are the right questions?

And why does IVF fail to ask them?

The right question is what is infertility, and why does it happen?

It turns out infertility isn’t a standalone disease like a cancer tumor or heart disease. It’s a symptom of underlying reproductive health conditions–often four or more–in the man and/or woman’s body that have gone undiagnosed or untreated, thus making it difficult to conceive.

This pivot led me to restorative reproductive medicine (RRM), a medical specialty that takes an individualized approach that helps each person address the unique underlying causes of their infertility. RRM is more than just “lifestyle modifications.” It combines cycle tracking, targeted lab testing, lifestyle interventions, medical and hormonal therapies, and corrective surgeries to rebuild natural fertility for both men and women. The three most prominent approaches include Natural Procreative Technology, FEMM, and NeoFertility.

While these medical specialties began developing in the 1970’s, it wasn’t until 2024 that we built out the policy vision for ensuring more Americans had access to this care. It caught on like a wildfire garnering the attention of state, federal, and executive agencies, and the largest fertility organizations in the country. And we’re just getting started.

Join the Movement

This space is for you if:

• You’ve ever felt like you’re on a conveyor belt of one-size-fits-all care

• You’ve sat across from a fertility doctor and felt pushed toward IVF

• You’re evangelical and wrestling with what a truly pro-life position demands of you

• You’ve already been through IVF and you’re still processing the embryos you created, the ones you lost, or what to do next

• Someone you love is in the thick of it and you want to show up for them well

The problem isn’t a lack of conviction. It’s a lack of knowledge.

Evangelical Christians have been the backbone of the pro-life movement—but if we’re being honest, we haven’t been consistent when it comes to our support for IVF and other reproductive technologies. We uphold that life begins at conception and yet turn a blind eye to a fertility industry that routinely creates, selects, and destroys human life.

That’s why we’re launching this Substack—and many more projects—to equip faithful Christian’s to navigate key questions of infertility, reproductive health, and doing the next right thing no matter where you are. This means we need to understand the times, the technology, and crucially, the theology behind it.

ICYMI: Weekly Round Up

• The Daily Wire, “I Thought IVF Was My Only Path to Motherhood. Then Everything Changed” by Iliriana Balaj

  • “When you are told IVF is your only path to motherhood, you do not weigh it as one option among many. You weigh it against childlessness. That is not informed consent. That is a cornered decision. Women across this country are walking into IVF cycles not because they have chosen it freely from a range of options, but because they have been handed an illusion that this is the only door left.” Balaj went viral after an exclusive interview with People Magazine after she discovered four underlying conditions after years of “unexplained” infertility. This entire article is line after line of hard-hitting excellence; I recommend it in full.

• The Free Press, “I’m an IVF Doctor. Business is Booming Because OBGYN’s Aren’t Doing Their Jobs,” by Brian A. Levine, MD

  • “Just last Monday, a woman sat across from me in my office and asked a question I have come to dread. Why had no one told her? She is 33, a therapist, married three years, and she has been to her gynecologist every year since high school. She was also on the brink of perimenopause. She had assumed that when she was ready, her body would be too… She is the patient I see several times a month. She is the most preventable tragedy in American medicine.”

• World Magazine, “A New Approach to Fertility Care,” by Emma Waters.

  • “Rather than just rejecting this benefit because some will use it to promote IVF, Christians should engage the comment period to shape the rule toward life-affirming care. Comments should urge that the rule’s language—covering “diagnosis, mitigation, or treatment of infertility or related reproductive health conditions”—explicitly encompass endometriosis diagnosis and excision surgery, cycle-based diagnostics, hormonal workups for both partners, and broader RRM care.” There is a rare opportunity to move the federal government toward life-affirming fertility care, and we shouldn’t waste it. Read here, and be on the lookout, to learn more about submitting your own public comment.

• New York Times, “They Started IVF, Then Split. Now Who Gets Custody of the Embryos?” by Caroline Kitchener.

  • “While lower courts tend to side with the person seeking to use the embryos — typically the woman — appellate courts have almost always sided with the person who wants to donate or discard them.” Sadly, this is just the most recent heart-wrenching account in a long line of cases where marriage and IVF have gone wrong.

What to expect here

Each week, this Substack will dig into the latest stories, unpack a topic from the podcast, and keep you connected to what’s happening in the policy and advocacy space. I’ll also share updates on my next book, also called Rethinking Fertility, and other projects.

Most importantly: I want to hear from you. What are you wrestling with? What resonates? What do you want to see explored? Hit reply — let’s get to know each other.

Know someone who needs this conversation? Forward it their way.

We don’t do this work alone.

Rethinking Fertility is produced in partnership with Frozen Orphans, an organization dedicated to equipping families to navigate reproductive technology through a biblical understanding of the human person. Their forthcoming documentary on the frozen embryo crisis is deeply moving — whether you’ve done IVF, are navigating infertility, or are just starting to ask these questions. Watch their trailer here.