Anticipation builds for California’s IVF expansion

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For five years, 39-year-old Sarah Jolly has been trying to start a family with her husband. After both participated in multiple tests, the Central Coast couple has yet to receive a clear-cut answer to their infertility issues. 

Throughout the ordeal, which has included three unsuccessful attempts of intrauterine insemination, Jolly said she has felt dismissed. Insurance also refused to cover any of her fertility tests or appointments, but covered her husband’s visit to a urologist. 

• Jolly: “I’ve gotten a lot of comments societally, even from a lot of men, like ‘You should have kids. It’s the biggest privilege.’ But our society also doesn’t support women and getting the health care they need to be able to achieve that. It feels like a punch in the face that I wasn’t expecting.”

For Californians like Jolly who are struggling with infertility, some support is on the way. Beginning Jan. 1, certain health insurers will be required to cover fertility treatments and in vitro fertilization services, offering millions of Californians a chance to have a baby, writes CalMatters’ Kristen Hwang.

The new law mandates large group health insurers — from employers with at least 100 workers — to cover fertility services, and does not apply to people who get their insurance through religious employers, federally regulated plans or Medi-Cal. The law also amends the definition of infertility to include same-sex couples and single people, opening up fertility benefits to these individuals.

In the U.S. roughly 9% of men and 11% of women of reproductive age struggle with infertility, and treatment can be costly: One cycle of in vitro fertilization costs an average of $24,000, according to a 2010 survey. For a successful pregnancy, which often takes multiple tries, the average cost was $61,000. These high price tags are the main reason people can’t access care, said Alise Powell, director of government affairs with RESOLVE: The National Fertility Association.

• Powell: “Infertility is a disease and it should be covered by insurance like any other disease or ailment people have.”

Read more here.

This year Californians witnessed the devastating Palisades and Eaton fires; immigration raids and President Donald Trump’s deployment of the California National Guard; the special election for Proposition 50 and many more events, big and small. Throughout this tumultuous year, CalMatters photographers and visual journalists were on the ground, capturing images and illustrating complex issues affecting the state.

To see the photos that defined California in 2025, check out the team’s visual essay, as well as their collection of images commemorating a decade of photojournalism for CalMatters’ 10th anniversary.

More 2025 reflections: This year also saw shifts related to California’s homelessness and housing crises, including cities becoming more aggressive with encampment sweeps, and state lawmakers approving a measure to exempt certain housing developments from environmental review. 

Read the first installments of CalMatters’ year-in-review stories, in which Marisa Kendall and Ben Christopher wrap up of the state’s homelessness and housing policies, respectively.

Though 2025 marks the third year local organizers have put on a holiday festival in San Diego County’s San Marcos, heightened immigration enforcement activity has created an air of increased caution in the mostly low-income, Latino community, reports CalMatters’ Deborah Brennan.

Sponsored by the civic organization Universidad Popular in partnership with Restoration Abbey, a local church, the event includes a neighborhood procession, or posada, that reenacts the pilgrimage of Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem. As locals gather for the Posada Comunitaria event, however, volunteers keep watch for immigration agents — highlighting the challenges some community leaders face when planning cultural celebrations under the current Trump administration.

San Marcos appears to account for just a few of the immigration arrests in the San Diego area, but this year saw more arrests: Since September 2023, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested at least 38 people — but 20 of those arrests were between June and October 2025, according to a CalMatters’ analysis of federal data provided by ICE.

Despite the fears, organizers decided to go on with the show.

• Alex Aguas, a priest with Restoration Abbey: “The practice of the Posada really invites people to think about … what does it mean to be on the margins and looking for sanctuary and shelter at this time?’ We also just get to have the opportunity to celebrate.”

Read more here.

Starting fall 2026, all California students will be eligible for California State University’s automatic admissions program, which enables students to be provisionally admitted to at least one of 16 participating Cal State campuses. Read more from CalMatters’ Mikhail Zinshteyn.