Building families shouldn’t be this hard

Here at Poli Split, we like stories that force both sides to look in the mirror. This op-ed from The Hill (https://thehill.com/opinion/healthcare/6042966-modernize-family-formation-policy/) is one of those rare pieces that doesn't fit neatly into a partisan box—and that's precisely why it's worth our attention. On the one hand, the conservative camp might bristle at the idea of government expanding its footprint into the deeply personal and often faith-adjacent territory of family creation. There are legitimate questions about what role the state should play in subsidizing fertility treatments, and whether taxpayer dollars should fund procedures that some citizens find morally objectionable. Those concerns deserve a hearing, not a dismissal. The instinct to keep government out of the bedroom and the clinic is not without merit—it's rooted in a genuine fear of overreach. But here's the other half of the coin. The fertility care landscape today is a tale of two Americas. In affluent coastal hubs, egg freezing and IVF are practically corporate perks. In middle America and among working-class families, the same procedures remain out of financial reach, often costing tens of thousands of dollars per cycle with no guarantee of success. That's not a political talking point—it's a market failure. When the ability to form a family is tied to your credit score, we've drifted from the promise of equal opportunity. The involvement of Grindr's CEO adds an intriguing dimension. Arison's own family journey—as a gay man who used surrogacy and adoption to build his family—highlights how incomplete and inconsistent our family formation policies are. The LGBTQ community has long navigated a patchwork of state-by-state laws and astronomical costs. But his call is not a narrow one; it's a universal plea for policy modernization that acknowledges the many paths to parenthood. The question Poli Split leaves you with is this: Can we craft policy that expands access without trampling on belief systems? Is there a middle ground where the state facilitates rather than dictates? The authors argue yes, and they're not alone. Whether the answer involves tax credits, insurance mandates, or a national standard for surrogacy and adoption, the conversation has started. And as with most things in politics, the devil is in the details—but the details are worth debating.