LISTEN – Dr. Tara Harding’s conversation with “The Jay Thomas Show” guest host Blake Hankey
BISMARCK, N.D. – A Bismarck fertility doctor has battled to get the North Dakota Legislature to fund insurance coverage for fertility preservation efforts since 2019.
Dr. Tara Harding had difficulties with miscarriages and infertility before having her son in 2018. She had to be life-flighted from her Ashley, North Dakota home while he was in the womb and had an emergency c-section. Harding said she spent $30,000 on fertility treatments and didn’t have health insurance coverage for them.
The House bill she championed most recently in 2025 would provide fertility health benefits to government employees for three completed cycles of intrauterine insemination and treatment like embryo transfers for up to two live births. It would have cost $446,128 in the 2025 to 2027 biennium. The bill failed in a 36 to 51 vote.
“We’re encouraging employers to do this because they can make that change if legislation won’t do it. So, really just looking at rounds (of treatment) instead of cost and (covering) men, women, cancer preservation,” Harding said.
Harding said the state doesn’t give funding to those diagnosed with cancer who want to preserve their fertility before they go through treatment.
The Mayo Clinic said chemotherapy can cause lower sperm counts or damage egg cells and radiation can affect organs and hormones involved in having children.
Harding founded Simply You Wellness in her basement in Ashley and expanded to a location in Bismarck. A Fargo location is set to open in August.
