Former President Donald Trump pledged to expand access to in-vitro fertilization treatment through a combination of both insurance mandates and government funding, despite concerns from the anti-abortion movement.
“Under the Trump administration, your government will pay for — or your insurance company will be mandated to pay for — all costs associated with IVF treatment,” Trump declared at a rally in Michigan Thursday.
“We want more babies, to put it very nicely. And for the same reason, we will also allow new parents to deduct major newborn expenses from their taxes.”
Trump later reiterated his IVF stance at a town hall in La Crosse, Wis., which Rep. Tulsi Gabbard moderated.
IVF is a form of assisted reproduction in which sperm and egg are fertilized in a lab. Due to the complex nature of that process, it can result in excess embryos.
Anti-abortion activists have railed against how those embryos can end up being disposed of.
In February, the issue of IVF was catapulted into the national spotlight after the Alabama Supreme Court determined embryos in IVF procedures can be considered unborn children.
That ruling prompted some IVF clinics in the state to halt operations over fears they could be liable for embryos lost in accidents.
Often left out of the political discourse are the parents in that Alabama case who lost their embryos in a lab snafu. Alabama has since moved to grant liability protection to IVF treatment centers, but that has not made the issue go away.
Trump has long maintained support for IVF and backed away from the Republican Party’s longstanding opposition to abortion practices. With an eye on the turbulent politics of the albatross issue, he has declared opposition to any federal ban on abortion.
During an interview with the DailyMail, Trump signaled opposition to Florida’s six-week abortion ban, which features several carveouts. The Sunshine State has a referendum coming up on the ballot in November about whether to restore abortion access.
“I think six weeks is a mistake. And I’ll be expressing that soon, but I want more than six weeks,” Trump told the outlet. “In Florida, we have a six-week program, and that’s what I believe that you’re voting on, and I think it should be more than six weeks.”
The 45th president stopped short of explaining how he’d vote on that referendum.
Last week, Trump posted on Truth Social that, “My Administration will be great for women and their reproductive rights.”
The declaration ostensibly came in response to top liberal darlings accusing him of wanting to trample upon “reproductive rights” at the Democratic National Convention.
Trump has boasted about appointing three of the conservative justices who voted to overturn precedents first established in Roe v. Wade to guarantee a national right to abortion access.
Polls have roundly shown that a majority of voters favor abortion access and trust Vice President Kamala Harris more on the issue than Trump.
Already, some pro-life activists such as Live Action founder Lila Rose, have begun turning on Trump in response to his drift away from their cause.
Last month, Republicans unveiled their new 2024 policy platform, which struck prior provisions involving strong national restrictions on the controversial procedure to terminate a woman’s pregnancy.
Trump had a heavy hand in writing that new, slimmed-down platform.
