Former President Trump has attempted to redirect the debate on fertility treatments by promising his administration would fund in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatments, an expensive proposal that goes beyond even most Democrats' positions on the issue.
“Under a Trump administration, we're going to pay for that care,” Trump told NBC News this week.
“So we will either pay for that care or require the insurance company to pay,” he added.
Republicans have not directly opposed access to IVF, but Democrats say Trump and his party paved the way for an Alabama Supreme Court ruling in February that said frozen embryos are considered the same as children and therefore discarding them could be a crime. The ruling temporarily halted IVF services for many patients in Alabama.
Many Republicans agree that frozen embryos should be considered children, calling into question their public support for fertility treatments such as in vitro fertilization, which often involve the disposal of unused embryos.
The Harris-Waltz campaign has blasted the IVF story, particularly over past comments made by Trump's running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), that it saw as insensitive to people struggling with infertility. Sarafina Chitica, a spokeswoman for the Harris-Waltz campaign, accused Trump of being dishonest in her comments to NBC.
“Donald Trump's own policies could effectively ban IVF and abortion across the country. Trump lies more than he breathes, but voters are not stupid,” Chitika said.
“Since Trump overturned Roe v. Wade, IVF has already come under attack, stripping women of their freedoms in states across the country. Vice President Kamala Harris is the only candidate in this race who believes in women and will protect their right to make their own health care decisions.”
Harris' running mate, Gov. Tim Walz (D-Minn.), has come under fire recently for past comments suggesting he and his wife used in vitro fertilization to have two children, when in fact they used a different treatment called IUI, which doesn't involve fertilizing eggs outside the body.
But Walz and his wife, Gwen Walz, have continued their attack, using their own experiences with fertility treatments to urge Republicans to “not worry about other people.”
Gwen Waltz blasted Trump over his IVF pledge during her first solo campaign rally in Virginia on Friday.
“These are the facts, and there is no alternative,” she said. “Donald Trump is the man who overturned Roe and put IVF access at risk. These are the facts. And he ran on a platform that puts these treatments at risk nationwide. These are the facts.”
“But he knows that his position is extremely unpopular, and guess what? It's a fact,” she added.
But Republican strategist Shermichael Singleton said the Trump campaign's IVF strategy was effective.
“The Republican Party is not just pro-life, it's pro-family and supporting Americans to have families,” Singleton told The Hill. “There's nothing more pro-life than wanting to help people who are struggling to bring life into this world.”
Singleton said the bill “undermines Democrats' ability to say Republicans are against IVF and want to control people's ability to have children.”
Matt Gorman, a Republican strategist who served as an aide in three presidential campaigns, likened the situation to 2014, when a Republican Senate candidate supported over-the-counter birth control.
“This is a surefire way around it, a way to avoid some of the attacks,” Gorman said, adding that the goal wasn't to win over Democrats but to “stabilize the independent base and chip away at some of them.”
But Susan Del Percio, a Republican strategist who has not endorsed Trump, said the campaign is “losing” on the issue.
“I don't think he knows what he's really proposing. He's just speaking on a whim. He knows the issue of reproductive rights is a big issue, so he's trying his best to seem a little less harsh,” she said.
“He's losing more and more support from moderate women,” Del Percio said.
“He has no message. Not only does he have no message, he can't find his footing,” she added. “To me it's shocking that he's not going back to immigration. He doesn't have anything new, so he's just biding his time to find something.”
Republican Senator Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma told reporters he agreed with President Trump's goal of “bringing more babies into the world,” but noted the unresolved question of “how to pay for it.”
“I haven't spoken to him all the way through yet,” Marin said.
According to the telemedicine platform Good RxFactoring in the cost of medications and tests, one IVF cycle can cost anywhere between $15,000 and $30,000. Most couples go through more than one cycle before successfully conceiving.
Trump's support for wider use of in vitro fertilization could put him at odds with hard-line anti-abortion activists.
In IVF, many embryos are often created to increase the chances of successful conception. Often, unused frozen embryos are disposed of, donated for scientific research, or donated to couples who are unable to produce viable embryos.
As conservatives try to equate frozen embryos with children, Republican lawmakers have stumbled as they try to reconcile access to IVF with the belief that life begins at conception.
Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, an anti-abortion group that has supported Trump, told The Hill that while it remains opposed to the disposal of embryos, the former president's support for IVF is consistent with its position.
“SBA Pro-Life America does not oppose fertility treatments that help couples struggling with infertility, provided they are ethical and follow strict medical safety standards. We believe human embryos should not be destroyed,” SBA Chair Marjorie Dannenfelser said in a statement.
“Proposals on this issue often go too far, providing blanket immunity to IVF clinics and unscrupulous doctors who switch human embryos, fail to follow basic safety standards, or inadvertently destroy human embryos desired by infertile couples. These are real scenarios that leave American families with no recourse.”
Fertility experts slammed the Alabama ruling earlier this year, saying discarding embryos is standard procedure for IVF and blocking it could make the practice ethically and legally too complicated.
Trump did not comment on the disposal of the frozen embryos in his NBC interview. The Hill has reached out to the Trump-Vance campaign for comment on how they would handle the unused frozen embryos and how much Trump's proposal would cost.
