Donald Trump on Tuesday declared himself the âfather of IVF,â a fertility treatment that has come under threat following the Supreme Courtâs 2022 decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
Itâs unclear what precisely the former U.S. president meant when he made the comment at a Fox News town hall in battleground Georgia that was billed as focusing on womenâs issues and had an all-female audience. But he has repeatedly returned to the issue â talking up his support for IVF â on the campaign trail, where he has given a long series of confusing or contradictory answers about his stance on abortion.
âWe really are the party for IVF,â Trump told moderator and Fox News host Harris Faulkner on âThe Faulkner Focus.â âWe want fertilization, and itâs all the way, and the Democrats tried to attack us on it, and weâre out there on IVF, even more than them. So, weâre totally in favor.â
, an expensive, decades-old treatment used by millions of parents, became a flashpoint in the nationwide clash over abortion and reproductive rights earlier this year when said that frozen embryos are children and those who destroy them can be held liable for wrongful death.
The Alabama ruling infuriated reproductive rights advocates who reasoned it would have a chilling effect on IVF, scaring off doctors who perform the procedure and sending prices even higher. It also set off a political firestorm that ultimately sent the stateâs Republican-led Legislature scrambling to pass a bill giving civil and criminal immunity to providers and patients.
Trump and Republicans quickly distanced themselves from the Alabama case, but Democrats, led by ice-President Kamala Harrisâ campaign, have argued that the ruling offered a preview of the policies Trump would seek to enact if he returned to the White House.
âDonald Trump called himself âthe father of IVF.â What is he talking about?â the vice-president late Tuesday. âHis abortion bans have already jeopardized access to it in states across the country â and his own platform could end IVF altogether.â
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Harris said she found Trumpâs comments to be âbizarreâ and said he should instead be taking responsibility for the climate around abortion rights in the US.
âIâm going to say what Iâve said publicly and what Iâve said many times based on my observations. ⌠Donald Trump is increasingly unstable, and as has been said by people who have worked closely with him even when he was president, heâs unfit to be president of the United States,â she said.
In the aftermath of the Alabama decision, Trump claimed he would enact a federal policy . He did not say how he would go about doing so or whether the government or insurers would foot the bill.
Senate Democrats, keen to highlight the issue ahead of the election, have twice this year brought up a bill that would guarantee access to IVF nationwide â with Republicans each time. Many of those GOP opponents have said they do support IVF but criticized the legislation as unnecessary overreach and a political show vote.
During the town hall, Trump also criticized some states for placing restrictions on abortion that he called âtoo tough,â saying, without providing any details, that those laws are âgoing to be redone.â
âThe states are now voting (on abortion rights), and honestly, some of them are going much more liberal, like in Ohio,â Trump said.
Faulkner then noted that âsome of (the states) are not,â that enacted or activated bans or restrictions on the procedure after Roe was overturned in 2022 and where those limits remain in place.
âAnd some of them are not, but itâs going to be redone,â Trump replied. âItâs going to be redone. Theyâre going to, youâre going to end up with a vote of the people. And some of them, I agree, theyâre too tough, too tough.â
Still, Trump again touted his role in appointing Supreme Court justices who struck down Roe v. Wade and argued that the issue should be left to the states to legislate. He also expressed support for exceptions to abortion bans in the case of rape, incest and when the life of the mother is in danger.
After previously refusing to commit either way, Trump earlier this month said he would veto a federal abortion ban. His running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, during his vice-presidential debate with Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, acknowledged the GOPâs difficulties navigating the issue â suggesting his party push new legislation to help parents in need.
âWeâve got to do so much better of a job at earning the American peopleâs trust back on this issue, where they frankly just donât trust us,â Vance said.
Two-thirds of Americans oppose the Supreme Courtâs decision, according to a conducted this summer.