IVF for Single Women Raises New Conflict of Interest Questions for Czech PM

The Czech government is planning to give single women access to assisted reproduction services. Might the PM’s own stake in the fertility market have something to do with it? Even ethics experts are divided on the issue. Czech Health Minister Adam Vojtech turned to his ministry’s ethics committee for counsel at the end of July to ascertain its views on whether Czechia should legalise IVF and assisted reproduction techniques for single women. But the 23-member advisory board could not reach agreement, delaying their final assessment until they reconvene after the summer. Supporters of the reform argue that a woman’s relationship status should not be a defining factor excluding them from motherhood. Opponents, on the other hand, say assisted reproduction is first and foremost a treatment for infertility problems in couples, not a reproductive health service that should be available to anyone. Few topics carry as much biological, ethical, sociological and political weight, and the debate is bound to intensify after the government and parliament return to work after the summer recess. Bringing IVF to single women The ethics committee’s inconclusive discussions did not prevent Health Minister Vojtech – a member of the ruling ANO party and close ally of Prime Minister Andrej Babis – from continuing to push his draft bill and taking it to the next step for discussion. Compared with most of Europe, Czechia’s reproductive policies remain relatively strict to this day. It is also one of the few EU member states where women without a male partner cannot access artificial insemination techniques – along with the likes of Slovakia, Poland, Lithuania and Italy – thus making them only available, on paper, to heterosexual couples. “There is a large group of single women who are secure and would like to have a child, but they cannot legally have one in the Czech Republic,” said Nicole Mardesicova, vice-chairwoman of the assisted reproduction department at the Czech Gynaecological and Obstetrics Society. The draft amendment, submitted on June 24 for interdepartmental consultation by Health Minister Vojtech together with the government’s human rights commissioner, Tatana Mala, would update the Act on Special Health Services, which many have long criticised as outdated. It states, for example, that “artificial insemination may be performed on a woman of childbearing age… upon a written request from the woman and man who intend to undergo this heath service together.” In its current form, the reform would merely abolish the requirement for a man’s written permission, opening up assisted reproduction to single women and, implicitly, to lesbian couples. It would, however, keep other regulations in their current format: only women up to 49 years old can access those services, and public health insurance only covers their reimbursement for women under 40 and for a limited number of attempts. Based on the Health Ministry’s proposal, women making the request alone would, however, not be covered by health insurance and should cover the costs on a self-pay basis regardless of age or number of attempts. This, in turn, raises another question on whether the access will be de-facto reserved for wealthier women who can afford it. “There are women who, for various reasons, do not have a partner. What is important to me is that they are here, they are interested, and I do not think that the state should prevent them from having a child if they are able to take care of it,” reasoned Vojtech. “Moreover, the need to have a partner is already being circumvented: they can come with any acquaintance or friend who declares themselves as their partner, and the centre providing artificial insemination has no way of verifying this,” he added. Illustrative image. Source: Pixabay Political clash The proposal has been welcomed by associations and activists who have long pushed, behind the scenes, for the liberalisation of reproductive rights, and is seen as a key step in the right direction for those seeing the exclusion of single women as a shameful injustice. But even within the government itself, Vojtech’s plans are setting up a political clash with ANO’s two coalition partners, the far-right Freedom and Direct Democracy (SPD) and ultraconservative Motorists for Themselves, who’ve already voiced their opposition in no uncertain terms. Sports, Prevention and Health Minister Boris Stastny of the Motorists voiced his opposition in characteristically colourful terms: “I am convinced that human life is created by the fusion of an egg and sperm, or the loving relationship between a man and a woman. It is not created by the fusion of sperm with sperm, egg with egg, or man with man, woman with woman, or even a woman with a test tube.” For the SPD, the party’s health expert and MP Jan Sila argued that the interests of the unborn child should trump those of adult women: “A child should have a mother and a father. We must first defend the interests of children, not of adults who have other options. A child has no choice.” The mood is also uncertain within ANO itself, a catch-all populist party whose billionaire leader, Andrej Babis, has long publicly embraced a more liberal approach to women’s and reproductive rights, but who has shifted further right in recent years. For that brand of politics, extending IVF treatments to single women is seen as an attack on the so-called “traditional” family. It’s among the opposition parties that the reform could paradoxically find more support. The liberal Pirate Party and centrist STAN movement have both supported the change, although the conservative Christian-Democrats are against, and the right-wing ODS party remains largely divided on the issue. “It is senseless and undignified for a woman to have to prove that she lives with a partner because she wants to get pregnant. This will help a lot of lesbian couples, but also a lot of women who live alone without a partner and want a child,” argued the head of STAN’s parliamentary grouping, Michaela Sebelova. Despite the shifting political faultlines on the divisive topic, both supporters and critics of the amendment appear to agree on one thing: the underlying and blatant conflict-of-interest brewing under the surface. Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis speaks to the media upon arrival at the 2026 NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey, 08 July 2026. EPA/NECATI SAVAS Vested interest “We also have to realise why [Health Minister] Adam Vojtech is doing this. Who is the biggest Czech and major European player in the field of IVF?” the SPD’s Sila asked rhetorically. Via his Hartenberg Fund and FutureLife consortium, Prime Minister Babis owns over 60 fertility clinics in Czechia and abroad, giving him a direct financial interest in expanding access to assisted reproduction. And unlike his separate Agrofert conglomerate, whose shares he had to transfer to a trust fund to comply with Czech conflict-of-interest laws, the prime minister continues to this day to have direct ownership of this part of his business. “The fact is that the current Prime Minister Andrej Babis has a portfolio called FutureLife, which includes a number of assisted reproduction clinics such as Genet, Reprofit or Sanus. And the Minister of Health is trying to push through a law that will ultimately increase the Prime Minister’s assets,” summed up Marek Orko Vacha, a Roman Catholic priest, molecular biologist and regular media commentator. Among the opposition ranks, Babis’s overlapping interests are a perennial source of concern, yet the benefits of the reform are seen as too good to make a principled stand. “It is of course unpleasant, the fact that Andrej Babis owns a network of clinics influences all decisions in the healthcare sector. But the proposal is right for us in terms of values,” said STAN MP Michaela Sebelova. Aware that his boss’s stake on the fertility market is no secret to anyone, Health Minister Vojtech himself addressed the issue, reversing the terms of the debate by saying single women who want to have a child should not be kept “hostage” to the situation. Although acknowledging the conflict of interest, some commentators insist it is unlikely the amendment was put together as a direct favour to Babis’s business interests. Rather, they argue, it is the culmination of years of lobbying by reproductive rights and women’s rights advocates, as well as growing acceptance of shifting social norms. “It is a sad example of how the prime minister’s conflict of interest distorts, destroys and even makes almost impossible to have a debate about a measure that otherwise makes sense,” wrote Seznam Zpravy commentator Martin Caban.