Emma Waters
Emma Waters | |
|---|---|
 Waters speaks at the Danube Institute in 2025 | |
| Born | Emma Leigh Posey 1997 or 1998 (age 28–29)[1] |
| Education | Lee University (B.A.) |
| Occupations | Author, policy analyst |
| Spouse | Jackson Waters |
| Children | 3 |
| Writing career | |
| Years active | 2022–present |
| Subjects | Feminism, assisted reproductive technology |
| Works | Lead Like Jael |
Emma Leigh Waters, née Posey,[2] (born 1997 or 1998) is an American author and policy analyst. She studies assisted reproductive technology at the Heritage Foundation. A critic of in vitro fertilization and commercial surrogacy, Waters has advocated for fringe approaches to treat infertility and for bans on surrogacy arrangements in the U.S. by foreign nationals, and she is a leader within the pro-natalist movement in the United States. She is also the author of Lead Like Jael, a 2026 book offering guidance for Christian women.
Early life and education
[edit]Waters grew up in rural southern Georgia. She was the oldest of four homeschooled siblings.[3] Waters graduated as valedictorian from Lee University in Tennessee.[1]
Career
[edit]After graduation, Waters moved to Washington, D.C., for an internship and then full-time job at conservative nonprofit organization American Moment. She joined the Heritage Foundation in 2022 as an analyst on emerging fertility technology.[3] She was a 2022–23 public policy fellow at The Fund for American Studies,[4] a 2025 Lincoln Fellow at the Claremont Institute[5] and a visiting fellow emerita at Independent Women's Forum.[6] She is also the host of a podcast on fertility issues.[1] As of 2026, she was a senior policy analyst at Heritage's Center for Technology and the Human Person.[7]
In March 2026, Regnery published Waters' Lead Like Jael: 7 Timeless Principles for Today’s Women of Faith.[8] According to Emma Green in The New Yorker, the book urges "something of a middle path" between the motifs of the "girlboss" and the "tradwife": "women should recognize that there are seasons of life with different demands, and see their roles as wives and mothers not as a retreat from work but as a chance to build a foundation." Green added that Lead Like Jael was published "into a moment of wider exhaustion and uncertainty about the models of a good life on offer." (The Jael of the title is the biblical Jael of the book of Judges, who lures an enemy commander to her tent, feeds him, then drives a tent peg through his head while he sleeps.)[9] In American Reformer, Scott Yenor wrote that Waters "makes the biblical case for what I call the side-hustle tradwife, a woman who works, as Waters writes, 'either out of necessity or desire,' yet puts her 'home and relationships first.'"[10]
Policy advocacy
[edit]Waters' policy work has been a major factor in making fertility regulation a mainstream topic. According to Emi Nietfeld in Wired magazine, Waters is "a kind of backroom wheeler-dealer and political strategist" who was "the mastermind behind Florida's recent ban on international surrogacy, the Texas GOP's souring on IVF, and the squashing of [Donald] Trump's 'fertilization president' initiatives."[3] The New York Times described her as a "rising leader" in a conservative movement to promote traditional family life and mores.[1]
Waters has advocated for "restorative reproductive medicine" (RRM), which purports to treat "root causes" of infertility such as endometriosis, low sperm count, hormonal imbalances and lifestyle factors.[1] The New York Times described RRM as "an approach long confined to the medical fringe" that has gained currency among conservative Republicans and Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) activists in the second Trump administration.[11] The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has said that RRM is unproven and not based on science.[12]
After Trump proposed free IVF during his 2024 presidential campaign, Waters led a coalition of MAHA activists, anti-abortion groups and medical practitioners who advocated for RRM as an alternative to wider use of IVF.[11] Waters drafted model legislation that would mandate insurance coverage for RRM, and she was the "point person" who advocated for its spring 2025 passage by the Arkansas General Assembly.[1] In July 2025, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services deployed funds from a birth control program to support RRM training.[12] She was also involved in a proposal from the Trump administration to encourage employers to include RRM coverage in their insurance plans.[1]
Waters became a critic of IVF's effectiveness and has said that it encourages young women to delay fertility until it may be too late for them to conceive.[3] She is also a proponent of pro-natalist policies like baby bonuses and financial incentives to marry before 30.[1] Nietfeld described Waters as occupying the "trad wing" of the pro-natalist movement, at odds with the "tech right" wing that embraces surrogacy, artificial wombs and genetic engineering of embryos. She called Waters "in certain ways ... a voice of reason" in the fertility technology sector who fills the gap between liberals who support reproductive choice but do not discuss ethical pitfalls of reproductive technology on one hand, and right-wing advocates for new technologies that might improve fertility rates on the other. According to Nietfeld, the United States is an outlier among wealthy countries in permitting unregulated commercial surrogacy, embryo sex selection and genetic testing, and Democratic Party silence on the issues has resulted in ceding the topic to Waters and her allies.[3]
Waters is also a critic of commercial surrogacy, especially when American surrogates are hired by foreign nationals.[13] A 2025 Senate bill that would ban citizens of "hostile foreign regimes"—including China—was described by Nietfeld as part of "Waters' master plan to undermine the fertility industry." In May 2025, a similar law was enacted at the state level in Florida.[3] Model legislation developed by Heritage that would require transparency from fertility clinics of data on embryo donation, destruction and preservation was considered in Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas. Waters said that the legislation was aimed at helping lawmakers understand the "the extent of the current fertility industry".[7] A group of reproductive medical practitioners criticized the model legislation in The New England Journal of Medicine.[14]
Personal life
[edit]Waters met her husband, Jack, while in college.[3] They married in 2022.[2] Waters lives in Ambridge, Pennsylvania, where her husband is a seminarian at Trinity Anglican Seminary. They have three daughters.[3]
References
[edit]- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Hartocollis, Anemona (July 8, 2026). "A Conservative Role Model for Ending the Fertility Crisis". The New York Times. Retrieved September 30, 2026.
- 1 2 Waters, Emma (January 17, 2022). "Jackson Matthew Waters and Emma Leigh Posey joined in Holy Matrimony on January 14, 2022". X. Retrieved 24 September 2026.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Nietfeld, Emi (September 23, 2026). "She's 28, Loves God and Her Family, and Might Be the Reason You Can't Have Kids". Wired. Retrieved September 30, 2026.
- ↑ Starkel, Marissa (October 13, 2022). "TFAS Welcomes This Year's Public Policy Fellows". The Fund for American Studies. Retrieved September 30, 2026.
- ↑ "2025 Lincoln Fellows". The Claremont Institute. August 29, 2025. Retrieved September 30, 2026.
- ↑ "Emma Posey Waters". Independent Women. January 4, 2024. Retrieved September 30, 2026.
- 1 2 Reed, Tina (July 9, 2026). "State IVF measures may reduce access to fertility care, docs say". Axios. Retrieved September 30, 2026.
- ↑ Grossman, Miriam (January 9, 2026). "Spring 2026 Adult Preview: Religion & Spirituality". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved 30 September 2026.
- ↑ Green, Emma (April 6, 2026). "Will Biblical Womanhood Box You In or Set You Free?". The New Yorker. Retrieved September 30, 2026.
- ↑ Yenor, Scott (March 16, 2026). "Women After Feminism, Part II". American Reformer. Retrieved September 30, 2026.
- 1 2 Kitchener, Caroline (August 21, 2025). "As Trump Weighs I.V.F., Republicans Back New 'Natural' Approach to Infertility". The New York Times. Retrieved September 30, 2026.
- 1 2 Kitchener, Caroline; Stolberg, Sheryl Gay (July 19, 2025). "Under Trump, a New Focus for a Birth Control Program: Helping Women Get Pregnant". The New York Times. Retrieved September 30, 2026.
- ↑ Moseley-Morris, Kelcie (August 13, 2026). "More GOP party platforms include anti-IVF language. Is surrogacy next?". Stateline. Retrieved September 30, 2026.
- ↑ Moutos, Christopher P.; Phelps, John Y.; Moutos, Dean M. (July 9, 2026). "Mandated State-Level Surveillance of Assisted Reproductive Technology — An Emerging Threat in the United States". New England Journal of Medicine. 395 (2): 110–112. doi:10.1056/NEJMp2602489. ISSN 0028-4793. Retrieved September 30, 2026.